Like many people, we're taking an end of summer trip. This time of year
makes us appreciate those things that fill us with joy. Spending time
with friends and family, having leisurely meals, taking long walks on
the beach, and, special to this summer, watching the Olympics and
following the political campaigns.
More than usual, the fall will bring big changes to our household because
our son, Michael, is preparing to leave for his freshman year at
college. So it was important to find time to take a trip to New Jersey
to visit with Michelle's parents.
With few exceptions,
Michelle's extended family has stayed on the East Coast. A few years
ago they had a family reunion at a nearby resort and 75 aunts, uncles,
and cousins came for the weekend. Sunday at Helen and Warren's means
brunch for 20, setting up a table in the living room, bringing out the
folding chairs, and sharing platters of bagels, lox, coffee cake, cold
cuts, cheese, egg salad, tuna salad, fresh fruit, and lots of Helen's
special iced coffee.
Travel
Travel
Austin to Monterrey
The woman at the desk has never heard of that bus station before. It's on East 7th and Shady Lane, in the shady part of town.
I
arrive at ten o'clock. The woman at the counter tells me the 10:15
ticket I bought online doesn't take me where I'm trying to get.
So she puts me on the 9:30. Which doesn't show up until 10:45.
This
was the second leg of a mythic bus ride. I'd scheduled this route in
January 2007. I was going to fly from New York to Austin. Bus from
Austin to Monterrey. Monterrey to Central Mexico. My flight was
canceled because Austin was frozen.
I gave myself a high-five for following through, three years later. I took a sip of water.
Earlier,
hotel security accused me of shoplifting. I had elaborately stolen a
bottle of water, M&M cookies, and a package of Fig Newtons. Then
the mook realized the hotel didn't sell those products.
British Invasion
I’m an Anglophile. The names of my sons say it all. Oliver and Barnaby. It wasn’t on purpose, but I accidentally copied Tom Stoppard, who happens to have two kids with the same names.
I was, however, copying my friend Robin and her husband Gene, who, last year, had gone to London, then chunneled it to Paris. Sounded great. Had to try it too. Anyway, I needed a London fix. It had been too long since I’d seen my old friends. From Robin, I wanted the names of restaurants as well as her hotel in London. She raved about the hotel, but I nixed it because of the location. I like to be in the thick of things -- to be able to walk straight out into the action.
Robin warned me to book Ledbury restaurant immediately. I’m tech-challenged, and although the website listed an open reservation, I couldn’t make it work. Then, in the weeks before our trip, Ledbury was awarded a Michelin star and it was suddenly booked many months in advance. I’d been hearing a lot about the great new dining explosion in London. Figuring Ledbury wasn’t meant to be this time, I moved on to book a few other highly recommended restaurants.
Tap dancing
I walked right past Christian Louboutin last weekend. He made an impression.
Louboutin is Paris’ most well-known ladies shoe designer, notable for his sky high heels and their trade-mark red patent sole. Louboutin’s shoes eclipsed Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik at the peak of the swinging hey-day of ‘Sex and the City’, and I can see why: every pair I own are well-cut, sexy, and outrageously comfortable (and, to be fair, outrageously expensive).
Louboutin was easy to recognize: I remember seeing pictures of him in an article about how he spends his free time drifting down the Nile in an over-sized Egyptian dhou, and I also knew that his Parisian flagship was just around the corner in one of the covered ‘galeries’ in the 1er. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he was wearing a well-cut khaki suit, accented by an outrageous and sparky pair of silver studded black leather shoes that flashed in the light as he hopped up onto the pavement.
The Wolf Creek Inn
Yesterday I opened a “letter” from my mother; a perfect example of
her eccentric idea of correspondence. Bereft of card, signature, or,
God forbid, “Dear Daughter”, the envelope contained 3 newspaper
clippings – each annotated with her inimitable, looping script. To the
first clipping, a review cautioning that a new kid’s hardback called
“The Graveyard Book” may be too dark for sensitive children, my mother
had added “This sounds good!” A study exploring the effects of the
color red on both attention span and anxiety prompted this commentary:
“You know I made all red things for your cradle and crib! How to
create an obsessive compulsive?” And of course my personal favorite,
an interview in which Nadya Suleman, the recent mother of octuplets,
asserts that she wanted a family to help combat depression. In this
article the words “children” “cure” and “depression” have all been
manically underlined. Radiating a giant arrow, the newspaper’s indent
points to my mother’s own thickly inked phrase: “What an idiot!” She
may not write much, but it sure reads loud and clear.
My mother’s attitude towards children and their rearing being what it is, she often chose the Wolf Creek Inn as the ultimate destination on the many and extensive road trips we took together. Touted as “the oldest continuously operated hotel in the Pacific Northwest” by the State of Oregon’s recreation department, the Inn boasts perfectly articulated period décor, both a ball and dining room, and a magical, perfumed orchard. It is also remote, haunted, and almost entirely unfit for children (read: no television).
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