Close Encounters-4/4/10

There is something magical--even sacred--about the contact between humans and great animals of other species in the wild. It's hard to define, but I am always thrilled, and come away somehow enriched by the experience, as though I had learned something intangible from these different, and in some ways wiser beings. It happens even, as it did yesterday, with a crowd of other tourists on a commercial boat... We went whale watching, and did not see whales. But we did see three different species of dolphin in great numbers, and the thrill was almost the same.

First, though, a necessary stop for a bite to eat along the marina at Dana Point. Georgia opted for a bagel with cream cheese...

Sarah and Ed were along for the ride.

It was, in fact, Sarah's suggestion that started us out on this trip. And Ed, a short while into the tour, lost his prescription glasses to the waves as he stood on the forward deck. The breakwater, on the way out from the harbor, was lined with hundreds, well actually thousands of sea birds, including, to my surprise, a few blue herons...

(Don't look. You can't see them here.) Ellie was ready, in full nautical gear...

... as was I myself, out on the foredeck, with a weather eye for whales...

No whales, as I said, but dolphins by the dozens, dolphins by the hundreds, great pods of them, intent on their prey and leaping from the water as though exclusively for our entertainment. Hard to get the full impression in these pictures, because of the slight delay between the amazing sight of a dozen or more of them, leaping in coordinated choreography, the pressure of the finger on the camera's trigger and the reaction of the camera's electronic lens. So this is a selection of the best that Ellie and I could manage...

The captain offered explanations and commentary from his roost on the bridge...

... turns out he, too, was a Peter, as was his first mate. Three of us on the boat. Here's Matthew, scanning the horizon...

... and Diane and the twins...

And of course, more dolphins...

Toward the end of the cruise, the wind came up and it grew quite cold and dark...

It seemed almost that a storm was threatening as we returned to Dana Point...

... passing this lazy bunch of sea lions basking on a buoy...

... and more birds, on the breakwater...

We returned too late for our reservation at Banderas, up the coast, and stopped instead on the way home for a less fancy dinner at Ruby's.

And so to bed.

To The Desert-4/5/10

Our numbers continue to dwindle. Sarah and Ed left, late Saturday night, to return to the city; and Sunday morning, I drove Jason to John Wayne airport for his return flight to Iowa. It was great to have him here for a few days. One of the sad conditions of our life is the distance that separates us from our sons and grandchildren...

Back to Laguna, then, to pick up the family for the safari out to Joshua Tree. An easy drive, with just a couple of knows of traffic, through some lovely Southern California landscapes...

... and past the wind farms in the Coachella Valley...

... arriving in Joshua Tree in time to stop briefly at the Visitor Center, where we we noticed the familiar, disorienting feeling of the ground shaking beneath us. We discovered shortly that we had felt the tremors from a distant earthquake quite some way to the south, epicentered near Mexicali, Mexico--in fact, a major, 7.2 event which was felt throughout Southern California.

We drove on from the Visitor Center, following directions with a couple of missed turns, and arrived at the Highlands House we have rented for a couple of nights. The house is called, appropriately, Sky, set way up in the hills overlooking the entire valley and the distant mountains...

It's nicely appointed with everything one could need, and the kids were soon wandering the many paths around the property with great glee, and immersed in the jacuzzi...

... with all the screams and hollering one might expect. We had bought some steak at the market on the way up with the hope of doing a barbeque; but alas, the supply of charcoal was too meager--and the wind too fierce and cold--to attempt such a thing, so we broiled the steaks indoors and enjoyed the result, along with baked potatoes and salad. And of course some good red wine.

We were off to bed in decent time, and slept not too well, with the unfamiliar surroundings and the wail of the wind all night. I was up at six, and out taking pictures of the dawn...

And sit now on the edge of the bed, looking out at the bird feeder outside our window. And beyond, the vista of the valley...

A Glorious Day-4/6/10

... but windy! I was up at six, outside, taking pictures of the sunrise with my cell phone, and was literally near blown down by gusts of gale force wind coming round the hilltops. Ellie woke early, too, and we made the drive down the sandy, largely unpaved roads that lead from this spot down to the village of Joshua Tree, where we sat quietly for a while over a cup of good coffee. Breakfast at home was the kind of chaos you might imagine with seven people, including three children, to cater to--from a strange kitchen with an electric stove top. We are used to the more easily controllable gas burners. With Ellie making pancakes for all, Matthew fried eggs for three, and myself wheat toast and scrambled eggs for me and two others, it got pretty crowded around the small range, tucked into an odd corner of the kitchen. We did manage the feat, however, eventually, and everyone had a good breakfast--with the twins especially tucking into Ellie's pancakes.

The wind was still howling when we finally made it out and headed for the park entrance. First stop was a parking area from which we spotted rock climbers inching up the sheer face of a cliff, using the long vertical cracks as their stairway. Here we all are, huddled against the wind...

You can see how cold it is, looking at Ellie, bundled up...

Next stop, we took the hike from Barker's Dam parking lot, walking up between huge cliffs and boulders...

... on either side of the trail to the lake at the top, its normally dead calm surface ruffled this way and that by the unrelenting winds. Here's my son and me, posed against the background of the little lake...

... and my wind-blown self...

The kids, despite the cold wind, had a great time scrambling on the rocks all day. Here's Joe, up behind Ellie, with his mom making sure the had the picture...

.... and the three of them...

... and the fearless Georgia...

... and the twins together...

... and Alice, huddled with her grandpa...

These pictures are from our last stop, the beautiful, secluded Hidden Canyon, where we enjoyed a picnic at a moderately sheltered table before undertaking our last hike.

... and the rest of us enjoyed the remarkable flora of this extraordinary desert landscape...

We would have stayed much longer, I think, but for that cold wind, which drove us back to our temporary abode late afternoon for a good nap (for me!) and a jacuzzi for the kids. Then Ellie got them all making big crayon drawings on the long scrolls of paper she had brought along for the occasion--an occupation that absorbed their rapt attention until dinner time. We had planned on the drive to a fancier place in Twentynine Palms, but settled instead for local fare at the Crossroads Inn down in Joshua Tree. Less driving for tired elders, and an earlier bed for all.

Back to Los Angeles-4/7/10

No access to the Internet this morning. Ellie and I vacated our small house in Los Angeles last night, to make room for the family; our kind neighbors, currently out of town, agreed to let us use a bedroom in their house, and they have suspended wi-fi service in their absence. I’m reduced to writing my blog entry as a Word document, to be transcribed later when we get back to our own territory. Oh, the woe of it all!

Actually, the big woe this morning is the cold that has been threatening Ellie for the past few days, but which seems to have come into full bloom during the night. She is now resting in her (strange) bed with her (familiar) cup of tea, and I’ll be taking on the difficult task of getting her to rest in the course of the day. The family have their own plans for the day. Sensibly, they pre-booked tickets for the Universal City extravaganza from London—the kind that allow them, supposedly, to get into fast-tracked lines so that they don’t spend their entire day waiting in those dreadful long queues. The storm of energy will be gathering shortly across the street, so it’s definitely a good thing for Ellie to be sheltered from it this morning.

Yesterday was spent almost entirely on the freeways—from Joshua Tree to Laguna Beach to pick up George from his dog-sitter, our good friend Lisa, who takes such good care of him while we are gone; then back on the freeway for the trip back north to Los Angeles. It’s a trip that normally takes us an hour door-to-door, if we pick our time; but yesterday it took nearly twice that time, with an accident that delayed us on Interstate 5 north, resulting in traffic that hardly moved for miles on end.

I am not good in such a circumstance, I admit it. All the good stuff learned from the Buddhist teachings and from meditation goes right out the window when I’m stuck in traffic. I tell myself (and Ellie reminds me, annoyingly) that there’s nothing I can do about it; I remind myself (and Ellie reminds me, annoyingly) to breathe. It does no good. It’s like watching Sarah Palin on the television news: I can’t help it, my blood boils. I watch, helpless, as my mind surrenders first to anger, then to rage. At such moments, I’m close to understanding those Tea-Partiers, who seem to have sacrificed even obvious self-interest, let alone reason and common sense, to a visceral feeling of victimization and self-pity.

Traffic notwithstanding, we arrived back home in time to get an unusual amount of clobber from the car, unpack, and sort through the piles of mail, even to take a relaxing sauna and a shower before preparing for the arrival of the family via a separate, and slower route from Joshua Tree. Amazing how small the house does seem when its population expands from two to seven! With the inflatable double futon that we use for guests at the beach, we managed to convert the downstairs into sleeping room enough for all five of them—but, with their large suitcases opened out to serve as drawer space, with remarkably little floor area left over for navigation. A good thing we have a bed to sleep in across the street.

We put together an easy supper of leftovers—soup, various meats and cheeses, bread and crackers—and settled down to watch the Nova special on the development of telescopes over the centuries and the increasingly spectacular views of the universe they afford. Before it finished, though, everyone was tired, so we left the end of the program to record and crept off to bed…

Yesterday-4/8/10

... was theme park day for the family. They went off to Universal City for the day. We kindly allowed them to go without us! Here they are...

The last picture, it seems, was the aftermath of an airplane zooming in to land on a patch of water in front of the audience. Matthew got soaked.

They returned home delighted with the experience of the day, and with innumerable excited stories, many of them told simultaneously over dinner. Great that they had such fun.

As for we two... we stayed home for a good part of the day, though Ellie felt obliged to go out on a grocery shopping expedition in the morning, to prepare for the family's return. I spent a few hours with my new assistant, Emily, who has been working on promotional plans for "Persist" in my absence. Next week, we plan to get re-started on this project. I have two speaking gigs, and much work to be done to retool my energies in this direction. In the meantime, one last full day with the gang today. Now... breakfast time!

Tourists-4/9/10

Yesterday we were tourists in our own town, taking the family out to see some of the sights of Los Angeles. First stop…

... Grauman’s Chinese! It must be a quarter of a century, at least, since we ventured to this end of Hollywood Boulevard. When Matthew was about Alice’s age and Jason not much more than Georgia’s and Joe’s, we’d come down here for dinner out at the Hamburger Hamlet and maybe see a movie. I’m thinking we saw “Star Wars” here many years ago.

How much the area has changed. What used to be pretty much a single, free-standing theater has become a huge complex that includes the Kodak Theater and dozens of tourist shops and fast-food stops. The underground parking is a maze, with escalators leading to the plaza; and above-ground, a multitude of what I took to be out-of-work actors pose as Batman, Superman, Marilyn, Yoda...

...to have their pictures taken for a couple of dollars with the tourists and their kids… The most popular, it seemed, was Michael Jackson, hovering near his star on the Walk of Fame. And then there was Mickey Mouse's star...

... and something to interest Alice...

We escaped from there with minimal damage to the wallet and the psyche, and drove on to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where we walked the children through the galleries to the new contemporary area in the Ahmanson wing to see the big de Kooning painting from Ellie’s parents’ home—looking so small in its new location beside a massive painting by Clifford Still. In the same galleries there are several other art works donated by her parents to the museum—some of which, truth to tell, we would happily have hanging on the walls of our own home!

Lunch in the museum cafeteria, followed by a visit to the Japanese Pavilion. Matthew and Diane lived in Tokyo for many years, and enjoyed the many gorgeous prints by Hiroshige currently on display on the top floor, and some beautiful ceramic work...

... along with the scroll paintings hung, protectively in very low light, along the ramp that leads down through the other two floors to the basement—an architectural feature that allowed the children an unseemly romp. A final stop in the room devoted to the art of the netsuke, a beautifully installed display of hundreds of these tiny, fascinating objects...

Matthew had been talking about his wish to take the kids on a nostalgic (for him!) tour of the La Brea Tar Pits since even before their arrival in Los Angeles, and we all enjoyed a visit to Pit #91, still an active and richly rewarding paleontological dig through layers of tar and asphalt; and a tour of the Page Museum...

... where the results of years of patient excavation and research are on display. It’s a stunning collection of exhibits, and one that never fails to entrance the younger generation—combing the appeal of fossils and the bones of exotic creatures from the ancient world.

From the La Brea area, it was a short drive up to the Farmers’ Market, also much changed since our last visit there many years ago. Here. “progress” has seen the expansion of the original market into a vast complex of walking streets and shops, and what was once free parking has become an expensive lot where it’s now a watch-wait-and pounce game to find a parking spot. Our energy flagging somewhat from the day’s exertions, we made an ice-cream stop in the central market area...

... and wandered around for a while before deciding—at my urging, chiefly, I confess—that enough was enough, and—at Ellie’s—that a drive through Beverly Hills might provide a different view of the city.

We headed off in that direction in our caravan of two cars, only to realize that we had lost Matthew and family along the way. We discovered that, in a moment of distraction, Matthew had followed the wrong silver Prius, turning off in completely the wrong direction and ending up way south of where he was supposed to be. Thank God for cell phones, which do turn out to have their uses! We talked him back on the right track, and all met up again in time for a pleasant walk through a few residential streets, which took us past the once charming, modest house where Ellie grew up—a place that has now been gussied up by its new owners to include the obligatory swimming pool and a pretentious front entry with columns and steps...

... and along “Little Santa Monica”, where we found her father’s old tobacco shop—Mrs. Kramer’s—still open for business with the original owner’s son-in-law on hand to sell me a couple of cigars. We were delighted, too, to find her father’s name, Michael Blankfort, still memorialized...

... on the directory of the old Writers’ and Artists’ building where he had his office, alongside the likes of Ray Bradbury and Billy Wilder.

From memory lane, then, we drove back east along Sunset Boulevard, passing through the Strip and pointing out the Chateau Marmont, which Diane had expressed the desire to see—though we no longer had time enough to visit. To end the day, we picked up Sarah from work and drove down to the Cliff’s Edge, on Sunset, where Ed joined us a little later; and enjoyed a decent meal in the very pleasant outdoor ambience of tables under the trees in the warm evening air. Back home, we unearthed a bottle of pear brandy, with a large pear mysteriously intact within, and opened it for celebrate the family’s last LA evening with a nightcap.