Week 3, Part 2: Minnesota & Wisconsin—Two Lakes

When I was in my twenties, I wrote some pages of a fictional place where some things and some words meant something different than they actually do. The piece was called “Minnesota” but this Minnesota was “the center for spiritual enlightenment.” It was a place but more than that, a state of being. Persimmons were love. I don’t remember what other words I used in this project. It’s probably tucked somewhere in a journal, if I didn’t purge it with so many of my other writings that I threw away when I was twenty-nine. I’d never been to Minnesota, but I had all these ideas about it. Of course, I knew Minneapolis to be rich with theater and art. I had a childhood friend that had moved there to work at their famous children’s theater. And I remember going to some acquaintances “Moving to Minnesota Sale” when I lived in Irvine, California. Since I always loved the idea of being wherever I was not, from time to time, I daydreamed about moving to Minneapolis. Eventually, my best friend Madeline left Berkeley during this time to move with her then-boyfriend to Minneapolis. And until this week, I never made it to the state of Minnesota.

Big Carnelian Lake, Stillwater, Minnesota

The drive from South Dakota to Stillwater, Minnesota, where we would stay for two nights, was largely filled with farms. We pulled over in a small town to get gas where they had an old-fashioned gas pump and two men were sitting in chairs in front of the station.

It was a gray day and as we approached the Twin Cities, the skyline wasn’t visible. Stillwater, the first establishment in the state, is about 45 minutes outside of the Twin Cities, on the banks of the St. Croix River, which divides Minnesota from Wisconsin. We were staying with dear friends of my dear friend Sasha, who I worked on performance projects with during grad school and who has been one of my biggest creative advocates and supporters over the last nineteen years. He’d recently connected me with his friend Susanna, who along with her husband, Ilya, have started Luv Ice Cream, a healthy, alternative to sugar-sweetened ice creams and chocolates. You can read about their story and company here: http://luvicecream.com.

They’ve developed their own all natural stevia blend that I’ve used in some baking experiments with a lot of success. (No bitter aftertaste!) Susanna and I have emailed over the last few months and I’d spoken to her once on the phone in preparation for coming to visit. I knew she and Ilya were as busy as two people could be but they still insisted on putting us up.

As we followed the directions to their house, which is several miles north of Stillwater on the  edge of a small lake, I thought Larry must wonder where I was taking him. Wild turkeys crossed the gravel road as we kept driving and turning, eventually turning down into their long driveway that ended on the shore of Big Carnelian Lake under plenty of trees and beside a lovely home.

We walked up the porch stairs and knocked on the door and could see a beautiful long wooden table set for dinner. Ilya answered the door and greeted me with a hug and he and Susanna quickly swept us into their world, as they were discussing buying a walk in freezer and cooler for their quickly-expanding business. Dinner was amazing and healthy, and Susanna let no detail pass—there were fresh flowers and lavender bath scrub in our bathroom to greet us after a long day of a driving—these small things, baths and bouquets of flowers, that I’ve definitely missed while on the road.

The next day, after a morning yoga class and a quick tour of Stillwater, Susanna took time out of her busy schedule to take us on a tour of downtown Minneapolis. We saw Mill Ruins Park, walking along the old bridge overlooking it, the Mill Museum and the new Guthrie Theater. The city was so clean with so little traffic it was stunning. Then she took us to the skyway tunnel system downtown and deftly toured us through some of her family’s favorite courtyards so we could get a feel of the city. After that, she took us to see the Walker Sculpture Garden which had a delightful sculptor’s miniature golf course, the giant spoon and cherry well known from the opening of the “Mary Tyler Moore” show, and gorgeous pathways of more varieties of flowers than I could count or name.

We met Ilya on his lunch break at an excellent family-owned Thai restaurant in St. Paul and then drove home to rest before going to the communal kitchen where they rent space to help turn out part of an ice cream order that was due on Friday. Larry became very deft at helping Ilya stir the custard as it went into the giant machine as well as cleaning and boxing finished pints. I help lid the pints, put together and label boxes and pint containers, and, and did some packing of ice cream—which is an altogether messy job. We worked for about three hours and then went home for a late dinner.

After tasting several flavors of ice creams as well as some of their vegan coconut based creams, we finished dinner with the leftover half pint of chocolate ice cream which was so delicious and rich and creamy it was difficult to believe it was sugar-free. I was amped up from the excitement and discussion of the night, which involved a lot of talk about the food science and our own personal journeys with food and health. I think the work they are doing is so exciting and revolutionary and I can’t wait until I’m settled back in a kitchen to start developing a baked doughnut made with their stevia blend to offer alongside the chocolate cupcakes I’ve already developed that are vegan, gluten-free, and sugar-free.

Meeting new people is always a bit nerve-wracking for me, but Susanna and Ilya were so generous, sweet, open, funny, and lovely, that they felt like fast friends. Plus, we loved their pug Nutella and their kitty Kwanza. 

Since we know we will be spending part of the winter in Northern Wisconsin, about three hours from them, we promised to return again, for another visit and a work party this winter. Though you can’t order their ice cream online (yet), you can order their delicious stevia-blend sweetened chocolates through the website above.

Then in the late morning, after a long night’s sleep, and another lovely breakfast (Susanna is an amazing cook), we said our goodbyes-for-now to head to visit some another couple we’ve never met, who live in the North Woods of Wisconsin, Jerry and Lea Justice. We drove through a thunder and lightning storm for awhile and then it was light rain for most of the three or four hours of travel.

Clam Lake, Wisconsin

This was not my first trip to Wisconsin. I’d flown to Milwaukee in 1997 to visit Fort Atkinson and Lake Koshkonong, Wisconsin, where my favorite American poet, Lorine Niedecker, lived her whole life. Fort Atkinson is between Madison and Milwaukee and a little south of both. I stayed there for several days and took a videotaped interview of Gail Roub, who had been Niedecker’s neighbor her last years of life. It was just before Christmas and Gail was dying of cancer—in fact, he died just a couple weeks after I visited, but he was strong enough and faithful enough to Niedecker’s memory and legacy to  take me out to her houses on Lake Koshkonong and to talk candidly about what he knew of her. I still have videos of the trip and the interview, tucked in a box and ready for anyone wanting to take on the work of biography. Maybe someday I will re-visit that project. But for now, we were heading to Wisconsin to meet the people we would housesit for from January to April and to meet their sweet cats who we’d tend to while they were away.

Jerry and Lea live on Clam Lake, which is situated in the middle of Chequamegon National Forest. We met them on a housesitting website. Clam Lake is a tiny unincorporated community near two small towns—Hayward (pop. 2300) is about 34 miles away, and Cable (pop. 700) is about 17 miles away. A fishing, snowmobiling, and cross country skiing tourist destination, Clam Lake and its surrounds house many wild animals—we saw deer, more wild turkey, and eagles, but there’s also efforts to repopulate elk, as well as wolf, foxes—and plenty of chipmunk for Lea and Jerry’s cats to chase. We totally forgot to take photos because we were so engaged in conversation during our short stay there, but I took a few photos on our way out. 

I’ll be writing and posting more about Clam Lake and the surrounding areas when we are back in January and I have a chance to get to know the people and the area more intimately while I hole up and work on a book and learn to snowshoe, but I wanted to say a few words about how beautiful this part of the country is. A mix of deciduous and pine trees, the leaves were just starting to turn, and Lea showed me photos of the lake in its full fall foliage. Brilliant!

Lea and Jerry greeted us so warmly, meeting us at the convenience store down the road from their house, showing us their home, sharing with us many of their lives adventures, and asking after our lives and careers. They made us feel special and like honored guests, and we couldn’t feel luckier to have been chosen to spend part of the winter in their beautiful home sitting on the lake with a big picture window, a loft work space for me, three adorable and affectionate kitties—Little Guy, Darby, and Jill—and two close by towns that seem to have so much to offer considering how small they are.

Jerry worked for Esso as an engineer and he and Lea traveled to and lived in many countries, especially in South America, during his years working for the company before they retired on Clam Lake, near where Jerry grew up. They told us about their many pets, including a monkey and an ocelot. Lea’s a huge advocate for animals and she and Larry had a lot to talk about because of his years of work as a dog walker and with animal foster groups. 

They took us to one of the three taverns in Clam Lake for a pizza and to introduce us to the couple who own the tavern—Sherry and Ralph. Then we went home and talked some more until we were all ready for bed.

It was quiet as quiet can be, but both Larry and I were so excited about our new connection with Lea and Jerry and looking forward to our time housesitting for them, that we had a bit of trouble falling asleep.

After breakfast that included toast from a local bakery (a rustic walnut cranberry loaf),  we took a short tour around Lea’s beautiful flower gardens and along the lake in the morning after breakfast, we had to get on the road to head to our next destination, another a city I’ve never been: Chicago.

We look forward to seeing Lea and Jerry (and Jill, Darby, and Little Guy) in mid-January, meeting more of the people of Clam Lake, Hayward, and Cable, and having a North Woods experience this winter. This is a part of the country I never really knew about and I feel so glad to have opened myself to trying new things on this trip. I’m truly grateful for the opportunity. 

Onward! to Chicago! But first, the rest of Wisconsin, including: 

Week 3, Part 1: South Dakota

At the very last minute, when we were about to leave Montana, some people convinced us to take South Dakota through to Minnesota rather than to stick with our original plan of driving through North Dakota. North Dakota promised sunflowers and the Enchanted Highway, but some Bozeman residents told us that South Dakota would be a more interesting, if longer passageway to our next planned destination, Minneapolis. 

Taking this suggestion turned into an amazing experience. We stopped the first night in Rapid City, South Dakota, with about 60,000 residents, with a sweet downtown area lined with brick buildings. We stayed at the Lazy-U Motel, on the road to Mount Rushmore. Though Mount Rushmore wasn't in our original travel plans, we didn't feel that we could be that close to it and pass it by. As we drove down the highway toward it the next day, we were worried the sky was going to be too gray to see the Monument. We stopped for coffee at a strip of souvenir shops that looked similar to Fishermen's Wharf in San Francisco. Then we drove up to Mount Rushmore, getting our first glimpse of the Monument from the highway. That first glimpse surprised us, as there was so much more mountain to the Mount than the four President's heads. The heads took up about a third of the mountain, and the faces, even from that distance, revealed such detail and power. Their faces, dwarfed by the rest of the mountain and detailed with the wisdom and humanity of these men, made them look so humble. Neither Larry or I had ever had any desire to go see Mount Rushmore, so the fact it impressed us so much, impressed us even more. We'd been seeing signs about Gutzom Borglum, the sculptor who was behind the Monument, since way back in Montana. We're really glad we made the stop and parked and walked up for a closer look at the Monument. 

Now willing to be more open to tourist options, are next stop was Wall Drug which is basically a mall of kitsch, with a really interesting history (http://www.walldrug.com/t-history.aspx), complete with a Traveller's Chapel, an old Apothecary that still looks like it fills prescriptions, and a ton of gift shops. Though it was pretty crowded, it was eerily quiet, and the whole thing rather gave me the heebie jeebies, perhaps because of all the souvenir shops. Shopping in general kind of depresses me. 

We cut down from there to drive the loop through Badlands National Park, which looks like the surface of another planet. It was stark and amazing. It reminded me a bit of parts of Big Bend National Park in Texas, but there really isn't anything like either one of the parks. The Badlands were windy and harsh and striking all at once. 

Then we drove through the beautiful countryside of South Dakota along highway 90, blue skies, with white clouds peppering the sky. And there were plenty of sunflowers, much to my surprise, along with corn, and beautiful sorghum with russet red tops. 

After a long day of sightseeing, we didn't get as far as we planned. We'd hoped to stop in Sioux Falls for the night but stopped about an hour shy of that, in Mitchell. Several people had encouraged me to go to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, but I wasn't convinced. Then I read about it, finding that it wasn't a palace made of corn, as I originally, thought, but a basketball gymnasium with a museum dedicated to the history of agriculture in South Dakota. Still, since we slept in Mitchell for the night--and because I am Sweetie Pie, I had to take a look at the corn palace. And the thing was, I was actually very moved by it. 

A very nice older woman named Devona gave us a five minute tour of the Corn Palace, which has a grand exterior decorated with rotating murals created with colored corn cobs. The farmer that grows the corn for the murals has developed thirteen hues for the murals, so they grow more and more colorful every year. They were in the process of filling in a mural outline while we were there. The whole purpose of the original corn palace was to prove Lewis and Clark wrong. Lewis and Clark had said nothing could grow in that godforsaken part of the country, and the people of South Dakota decided they would erect a building--the Corn Palace--and hang corn and other agricultural products on the outside in defiance to the explorers. The current Corn Palace was built of brick and wood, after the second one, built near the turn of the century and made solely of wood, burned down. The interior houses a gymnasium where both high school and college basketball games are held. They also hold sock hops and graduations in the Corn Palace. It's sort of like a community center and is attached to Mitchell's City Hall. I loved the pride of the agricultural history of South Dakota that the Corn Palace represented, and how down to earth it felt, even if the outside was somewhat gaudy in its grandeur. 

South Dakota turned out to be a combination of tourist traps that rubbed me the wrong way, beautiful and varied landscapes, and a rich agricultural region. This is a state I never gave a second thought to in all my life, and now I consider it an American treasure. The people were so incredibly nice and welcoming, and I hope I have a reason and a chance to visit again, even if I didn't necessarily feel it a place I'd feel at home. 

This journey continues to surprise me--and the whole trip across South Dakota was a detour some complete strangers convinced us to take instead of North Dakota. We'd somewhat dreaded both of the Dakotas as being a kind of necessary passageway to Minnesota and South Dakota ended up being full of treasures and wonderment. 

Week 2, Part 4: Montana!

After leaving Smelterville, Idaho, we drove 332 miles to Bozeman, Montana, stopping in Missoula for lunch. I was kind of anxious about going to Montana, because it was a place I'd always daydreamed about visiting and maybe moving to someday. I guess you could say I had high expectations of Montana. After four years living in far West Texas (Marfa), I'd fallen in love with wide open spaces and had been wondering about Montana for some time as another place I might fall in love with. It was sort of like the nervousness one gets before a blind date that a friend has set you up with and talked up. I remember sitting in Marfa, Texas in 2006, talking to a guy who was working in Marfa for the summer who lived in Livingston, Montana, and he told me all about Livingston and it seemed to me that it had a lot of the things I loved about Marfa and a lot of things I missed while living in what had started to feel like a too-small town. Livingston is about 40 minutes from Bozeman, where we were to spend the next three days. 

On the edge of Bozeman

However, I was so exhausted from the first twelve days of traveling and the fullness of the socializing, that when we got to the room we arranged to rent through Airbnb (www.airbnb.com) from a wonderful couple, Natalia and Narayan, I plopped down in our private little backyard under a cherry tree giving fruit, ate supper with Larry, and announced that I might spend the next three days in that beautiful, private, peaceful backyard. I can't say enough good things about our simple private room--it was affordable, Narayan and Natalia texted us often with great recommendations for places to see and things to do, I totally recommend their room if you ever find yourself in Bozeman. 

Narayan and Natalia's backyard with Chaif, one of their dogs

The next morning, though, I did manage to venture out--and am so glad I did. Bozeman, a small university town, with a population of about 38,000 people has a thriving Main Street, at least a dozen independent coffee houses, at least two independent book stores, a record store, tons of boutique shops, and many great restaurants. We aren't really shoppers, and with a fully loaded truck with our provisions for all four seasons and my Sweetie Pie gear, we can't afford to become so on this trip, so I can't speak much about the shopping opportunities in Bozeman, except they looked ample and diverse. I was thinking about the city of Merced, and have been, a lot on this trip, as I drive through towns with more established universities than UC Merced and wonder what makes the difference between the economic vitality of these--sometimes much smaller--cities, than Merced. I think there's a kind of confidence and a lack of fear of competition, that attracts diversity. Each coffee shop had its own character, attracting a different type of clientele, thus, people from all different backgrounds and interests might feel welcome in Bozeman. On Friday night, there was a Talking Heads Tribute band playing at the local VFW Hall, but there was live music playing at several other venues as well. Saturday night there was an open Contra Dance with a lesson before the dancing.

Near downtown Bozeman, on the way to Artwalk

Friday night was an Artwalk on Main Street, not dissimilar to the Art Hop that Merced hosts four times a year, but this happens monthly in Bozeman.

Somewhat grumpy dog to match somewhat grumpy owner of Vargo's Jazz City & Books on Main Street

We quickly found that Bozeman was as dog-friendly as it boasts--several stores on Main Street have resident dogs and there's seven off-leash parks in the city limits. Our hosts had two great dogs, Java and Chaif, that greeted us happily when we first arrived and said goodbye with plenty of whining.

Chaif pretending not to jump on Larry

We spent half a day in Livingston, and I wasn't as in love with it as I hoped to be. There was a little too much tourism for me, being about an hour from the entrance of Yellowstone and looking a little like a Western-town theme park. Still, the people seemed super nice. We didn't drive down to Yellowstone because we simply didn't think we'd have enough time to see any of it on this short trip and felt we needed a whole week just for Yellowstone.

Just another Montana sky

I hardly took any photos of the Montana landscape because it just felt too vast to capture in photos and the landscape looked just like the hundreds of photos one has seen of Montana. It's breathtakingly gorgeous. The outskirts of Bozeman and most of the rest of the lightly-populated state are peppered with ranch homes surrounded by land, with rivers running through there and there and mountains. The sky is big--though not quite as big as the sky in West Texas. Bozeman did feel like a place I could call home. And we decided, during some of the year that is not yet scheduled, that we'd like to spend a month or more back there, so we could really enjoy the down to earth people and beauty of the town.

Now that we are in mobile mode, as much as I loved Bozeman, I was ready to head on to South Dakota on Sunday morning, so we got up early, ate breakfast, and packed the car to head to our next destination--but there was still a lot of Montana ahead of us--many miles of reservations and herds of pronghorn were in front of this. But before that, we stopped to make a purchase in Billings (there's no sales tax in Montana), and came across a dog rescue organization that specializes in rescuing dogs from surrounding reservations (http://rezdogrescue.weebly.com) that had a puppy adoption event outside the local PetSmart. I fell in love with a particularly friendly puppy and had to pull myself away so we could head on toward South Dakota.

We took a shortcut off the 90 onto the 212 and ended up driving through the Cheyenne Tribe. Larry noticed the houses all looked the same, and small, and that woke us up to being on a reservation. When we stopped for gas in Lame Deer, we saw several dogs running around the area--all looking well fed, but not fenced in--and plenty of evidence of the poverty on the reservation. We felt saddened--and frustrated, not knowing what we could do. I guess that might be something we can ponder as we continue driving across this country and seeing the variety of lifestyles and reconsider our own life purpose on this trip.

Week 2, Part 3: Coeur d'Alene and Smelterville, Idaho

Coeur d'Alene Lake

Our next planned stop after Washington was Montana, but we knew we couldn't drive that far in a day, so we started looking at where we might stop between Seattle and Montana. I found out, through the magic of Facebook, another schoolmate from my high school theater days lives in Northern Idaho. Dolores and I were in "Midsummer Night's Dream" together our senior year--she was an awesome, funny, and beautiful Helena. Besides having great acting chops, Dolores danced and sang the lead in the musical, which I was too scared to audition for. I also remembered she'd called down some guys who were teasing me to cool it, standing up for me right before I might've fallen to tears, I as I did pretty easily in those days. We'd never been close friends in high school, but had been friendly enough on Facebook of late for me to book a room in Coeur d'Alene, which I thought was near her, and to nervously ask if she'd have time to meet. She surprised me by inviting us to stay in her and her husband's John's travel trailer. We gratefully accepted what turned out to be wonderfully sweet accommodations, the best BBQ'd steak dinner we'd had in ages, a lovely time catching up and remembering, and, because our time was limited, a too-short tour of Silver Valley sights.

Sunshine Mine Disaster Memorial

A mining community, the Silver Valley of Idaho is a mixed bag--there are depressed areas and signs of wear in the buildings and on the land, but the landscape is also gorgeous, studded with new-growth pine trees.  After a stop at Coeur d'Alene Lake on the way, we drove through Smelterville and up the hill to Dolores and John's cute blue house that opens to a green backyard and a sloping hill of trees. They'd just built a new deck off their blue metal shop, where we ate dinner, talked, and let night fall upon us. Larry was happy to be reminded, by the hunting and fishing culture, of his high school years in Yale, Michigan. And when we got a tour of the shop, which boasted a trophy wall from John and Dolores' game hunting, Larry shared that his high school history teacher was the Yale taxidermist. Dolores had joked on Facebook that she wondered what I'd think of the hillbilly she'd become, but I looked at the peacefulness of the landscape, the close connection she had developed to the land, the love she and John obviously shared, and the generosity with which they hosted us, and felt nothing but admiration for the person she has grown into. We'd both admitted we were nervous about seeing each other after all this time, but I was quickly comforted by her warm hospitality as well as by the history we shared. She reminded me of a scene I'd performed in drama class that had slipped my mind over the years, and I was grateful for the memory. Though I was an emotional disaster in high school, being able to connect with Dolores, as well as others from high school, has helped heal my past. 

Sunshine Mine Disaster Memorial

After a delicious dessert of homemade (and hard-won, as the berries were hand picked in the mountains above their house) huckleberry bars, Larry and I went to bed early again, and exhausted from travel, slept for what seemed like forever on a heavenly mattress before getting up for a short tour of some Silver Valley history. We decided we wanted to see the Sunshine Mine Disaster Memorial. The disaster happened in 1972, when 93 miners lost their lives to fire in the mine. It was a moving testament to the labor and loss of the mining community. 

Mission, Interior

Then we visited the oldest standing building in Idaho, the Cataldo Mission, which surprised me by being so different from the West Coast Missions I visited in my youth. It was grand and beautiful. We walked the grounds a bit. Then Dolores took us to the local Rails to Trails path, where you can ride, by bicycle, the whole 88 mile width of Northern Idaho on a former railroad path. Due to time constraints, we passed on the Old Bordello Museum as well as several other historic sights. We also missed, due to it being the off season, a chance to ride on the longest single suspension gondola at Silver Mountain Resort. The Silver Valley has such a rich history and is such an interesting combination of resorts with golf courses and down to earth people, that we know we have to spend some more time there, in a part of the country we hadn't really known about before this trip. I'm feeling grateful that the chance to visit with my high school acquaintance ended up teaching me so much about this country. 

Dawn and Dolores on her deck

Larry has also been excited about all the dogs we've met on this trip--and here he is with Dolores and John's Chocolate Lab Kody, who he had to have a photo with before we said our goodbyes and spent the day driving to Bozeman, Montana, which boasts to be one of the most dog-friendly cities in the country.

Larry and Kody

Week 2, Part 2: Edmonds & Seattle, Washington

Edmonds

On Monday around noon, we took the ferry from Kingston to Edmonds, where we'd spend the next twenty four hours with Larry's Aunt Stefani and Uncle George. Stefani and George have been married for over 50 years and  lived for years in San Francisco, Stefani directing plays at the San Francisco Actor's Ensemble and George worked as an editor at Bancroft Whitney. They retired some years ago to Vashon Island, Washington, but as they got a bit older, decided to simplify their life with a condo in Edmonds. Both Stefani and George are actors, and George discovered Edmonds while acting in an episode of the short-lived remake of the television series, "The Fugitive."

Edmonds is a beautiful, quaint port town, with a sweet downtown shopping area and a beautiful boardwalk and fishing pier. They started us with a walking tour of downtown pointing out the independent bookstore, the independent coffee house, the Starbucks they boycott, and several other boutiques and tourist shops, including Rick Steve's Travel headquarters.

In the afternoon, George drove us up to the Boeing Plant and Museum, giving us a chance to get a feel for the surrounding area and where we saw the massive planes.

After one of Stefani's famous home-cooked meals, we drove down to the boardwalk, and walked down the pier and out to Brackett's landing while the sun slowly fell in the sky. I got a chance to get to know Stefani and George a little, to hear about some of their theater and film projects over the years and about Stefani's continued work at the Edmonds Senior Center, where she teaches a local reader's theater class. The next day, they showed me YouTube videos of commercials they've been in--Stefani did one for the Washington State Lottery and George one for York Peppermint Patty. Both were hilarious and it was awesome to see them at work.

After a morning cup of coffee at Cafe Louvre, we bought some postcards and then headed back to their condo for a send-off lunch. I felt so grateful for their attentive hospitality and the invigorating conversation. Saying our goodbyes, we headed down to my first visit to Seattle.

Seattle

Though I've spent a fair amount of time in Port Townsend, the San Juan Islands, and Whidbey Island in Washington and have flown into the Seattle-Tacoma airport a few times, I've never spent any time in Seattle itself and was curious.  There are three people I know for sure who live in Seattle--Apis Malifera, a young singer-songwriter originally from Mariposa, California who I interviewed for Radio Merced about a year ago; Jose Guzman, who works in IT at the University of Washington and who was a student of mine my first year teaching at UC Merced, and Danielle Watts, a former student-turned-friend who was in my creative writing classes at Sul Ross University back when I lived in far West Texas. I set up to meet each of them on Tuesday night while Larry was looking forward to expanding his baseball stadium experience with a visit to Safeco Field and a Mariners-Astros game.

I met Apis downtown on First Street at a cool cafe called Ancient Grounds, where I had a chance to hear about her continuing work as a writer and singer-songwriter, and her life in Seattle. She works in an ice cream store called Full Tilt, which has four stores in the Seattle Area, most of which include pinball arcades and are known for their unusual flavors, rotating flavors such as peanut butter-bacon-chocolate. For more on Full Tilt, check out their website: http://fulltilticecream.com/about/    We talked, too, about how cities or towns absorb people, take care of them when they are meant to be there, by both fulfilling them socially and creatively as well as helping them find work and housing. I definitely have watched that happen to my sister in the Hood River, Oregon area and to others along the way.

Moving around the corner to the Pike Place neighborhood, I settled in a Seattle Coffee Works, meeting with Jose, who was on a bus stopover on his way home from work. I loved talking to him about his hopes and dreams, and especially loved the chance to have Apis and him connect so that he could get plugged into a more artsy community than he's had access to in Seattle thus far.

Finally, Danielle, who I hadn't seen for seven years, since I left West Texas, swooped me up and took me to dinner at Uneeda Burger in the cool Fremont District. We had a great time catching up, and I loved hearing about her different jobs and work with nonprofit support and educational organizations. While Larry was watching the Mariners lose by a landslide to the Astros in the beautiful ballpark, Danielle drove me up a hill where there's a place visitors and locals flock to watch the skyline of Seattle. It's especially great to watch from that vantage at dusk as the city turns to twinkling lights. I'd, of course, seen postcards and photos of the Seattle skyline, with the strange architecture of the Space Needle marking it, but as I turned the corner and came into full view from that height, my jaw dropped and I felt moved by the beauty of the sight, so much so, I felt like I was almost going to weep. I never thought a city skyline view would make me weep, but there you have it. I was quieted and humbled by the sight.

The next morning, we'd begin our long journey across Eastern Washington, where we'd stop in the college town of Ellensburg of Washington, to eat our lunch (which has typically become slices of a loaf of locally baked artisan bread, sliced tomatoes, and cheese or hummus) on the lawn in front of Central Washington University. Ellensburg has a population of about 18,000, but about 8000 of those people are students who are only there during the school year. It has small town charm with a feeling of vitality and lots of character. Our bread came from the small but wonderful Vinman's bakery, right across from the entrance to the university: http://www.vinmansbakery.com

After lunch, we went onward! To Smelterville, Idaho!

Week 2, Part 1: Hood River, Oregon to Mats Mats Bay, Washington

We've just landed in Bozeman, Montana, after a week packed with wonderful travels and visits with friends and family. We'll be hunkering down here in an Airbnb room for three nights and look forward to enjoying picnicking in the backyard under a cherry tree and checking out downtown Bozeman as well as the smaller town of Livingston, just fifteen minutes away. Thundershowers are expected the next two days, a welcome reprieve from the unseasonable heat that has followed us on this journey. We experienced so much in the last week, that I'll have to write this week in three blog posts, the other two will come tomorrow. Here's Hood River and Mats Mats Bay:

Last notes on Hood River: 

Tomatoes from the Hood River Farmer's Market

Potato plants at the Klahre House garden

My sister, Maya Trook, at the Klahre House garden

On the last full day at my sister Maya's house in Mosier, Oregon, I had the chance to spend an hour with her at her job. She works as a teacher and runs garden classes for the Klahre House School in Oregon, a program for at-risk youth. Klahre House is an alternative school, where youth from all over the state can come as an alternative to a detention facility. They are placed with specially trained foster parents in the Hood River area and spend their days at Klahre House, in classes of about six students each, learning typical curriculum taught by progressive teachers and attending process groups. I was there for a garden class, which started with each of the students, the two teachers, as well as me, the visitor, doing a check in about how we were doing, feeling, and what our goals were for the day. Then we drove the van to the two garden plots to introduce these outdoor classrooms to the new students and to harvest some of the crops the students had planted the previous term. I heard new students saying, "I think I'm going to like this class." I saw the pride in the seasoned students showing off and harvesting their tomatoes, red bell peppers, and corn. I watched the wonder as my sister started stripping corn and and eating it raw in the garden. The students followed suit. I watched my sister be able to bring the group to silence when they were excitedly talking and joking with each other by simply asking for, "A moment of silence, please." I felt moved and inspired by the whole thing. 

I left Klahre House to drive up to Sakura Ridge, a bed and breakfast and pear and sheep farm: http://sakuraridge.com

I met John and Deanna Joyer, owners and managers of the operation. John took me on a tour of the lodge and showed me the grounds, introducing me to his sheep. A lovely couple and beautiful location, I plan to go back to Sakura Ridge at another time to film a webisode for Sweetie Pie on the Farm. 

On Saturday at noon, we drove away, full and rested, with every intention of returning to Hood River sometime over the next year. 

Mats Mats Bay

Our next stop was to Larry's cousin's house in Vancouver, Washington, where we took a driving break on our way to the Olympic Peninsula and sat and visited with his cousin Cory and her husband, Steve. Then we started up to Mats Mats Bay, which ended up taking us far longer then we expected. The green woods grew darker and we winded our way down a gravel road to a large metal barn, where a theater colleague from high school, Tami, and her husband  John live, right on the water, with their lively and lovely eight year old daughter and spunky Weimaraner dog. 

We've been sleeping a lot on this trip, as traveling is proving more exhausting than we anticipated, so we went to bed early that evening, after touring their house and being tucked into a sweet little studio apartment with a loft area built out in a corner of the barn. Larry said, of our quiet, private and unusual accommodations, "I've never seen anything like this," in a delighted tone of voice. And we continued our discussion of how this trip is helping us re-imagine ways to live. We slept long through the quiet, dark night. 

In the morning, Larry didn't even realize he was looking at the bay because the air was so still that the dense trees were reflected in the water, doubling the foliage. Before we knew it, we ran into John, and he suggested if we hurry we could beat the tide and take the kayak out. He quickly brought us lifejackets, baled out the kayak, and pointed us toward the channel, and our determination to hole up and nap all day was quickly and gladly deferred by our short kayak voyage. We saw loads of Great Blue Herons, a Kingfisher, and, when we got to the mouth of the Puget Sound, a seal and some porpoise--quite a good outing for an hour long trip. Later, we walked the dog around the neighborhood and drove into my favorite town in the country, Port Townsend, for a quick tour at dusk, before coming back to Mats Mats for another long rest before heading out in the morning. It was too short a stay, and we definitely felt, as John had warned, that the rest of our trip would be downhill from there. The quiet, the magic, the unusual but perfect quarters, and the wonderful hosts. We love the Olympic Peninsula! 

Oregon

We left San Francisco on September 1st, the day after a lovely gathering of friends came to our house for a send-off luncheon. This open house event definitely made me  feel that I have strong community in San Francisco that both buoys me into our adventure as well as gives me a sense of rootedness as I'm now living an uprooted life. We stopped for lunch with one of my oldest friends, Mira, and her family, on their new rural property in Herald, California. Then we spent our first night in Redding with a dear friend, Colleen, and her family. Well fed and rested, we were sent on our way with much joyfulness. And Colleen gave me a haircut, which always signals for me a fresh start. 

Our second night we camped in Crater Lake National Park under fir trees and more stars than I've seen in years. Then we made our way to the Hood River area of Oregon where we have the luxury of settling in for several days with my sister in her new lovely home that overlooks the Columbia River. My sister moved to the Hood River area from Portland several years ago when she took up organic farming. Now she runs a garden program and teaches at a school for at-risk youth. It's so lovely to finally get a chance to see her bit of paradise and get a feel for her close-knit community, a community that has held her and supported her through thick and thin. 

We filmed our first "Sweetie Pie on the Farm" episode and had a wonderful experience cooking in the kitchen of a local asparagus farmer, Candace Smith, who helped us make her apple crisp recipe and then took us to the Kiyokawa Orchard down the street, where they grow countless varieties of apples. We're learning a lot about using our video equipment and I'm still trying to develop the character of Sweetie Pie. Hopefully by the end of the trip, we'll have a good handle on both. Here's an outtake from the shoot: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3NuS-FvpD4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Happy to continue to be blessed with many animals in our lives, we're sharing our time in Hood River with my sister's dog Anabelle and her housemate's dog (pictured below), Oakie. Tonight, we'll go to the local farmer's market and Friday night, I'm probably most excited about the giant Rock, Paper, Scissors contest in downtown Hood River. 

Saturday, we head to Vancouver and Seattle, WA, to visit with Larry's family before heading for a night or two to the Olympic Peninsula. Thanks for being a part of our journey.