On the Road Again (almost)

Get ready! Get set! It's time to travel in a tin can again, this time on a halfway-cross-country trip from the Pacific to Madison, WI, just in time for another Chicks concert with Hannah! As we sold the teardrop during Covid, we're renting a cute 16' Airstream Bambi for this trip. Still pretty tiny for two, but since we get along so well, we're hoping its more cozy and romantic than crowded and annoying.

Along the way, we plan to stop in Creede, Colorado Springs and Omaha to see friends, and then, hopefully will grab some time with "the kids" in the Midwest. Here's a tentative roadmap:

And to get everyone in the spirit of our destination, here's Hannah and I at our last Chicks concert, at the start of their Gaslighter tour in LA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dom7VlltBUc 

We depart on August 12th, so look for blog posts after that. Happy August!

Mountain High

Laguna Beach has been so dreary this spring with May gray and June gloom eliminating any trace of sunshine on most days. Fortunately, Idyllwild has been warm, sunny and blue-skied, so I came up mountain for a few days of sunny bliss. 

All the streams on the Ernie Maxwell Trail are swelled with rain.

There are even some modest waterfalls where typically the stream beds are bone-dry by June.

Taquhitz Peak looms large in the afternoon sun.

The winter rain made for beautiful purple blooms along the trail.

A definite mood-lifter to get outside in nature!

 

Midwest Week

Covid may not be completely over for everyone, but for me, I feel a bit like I've been let out of a cage, and Japan just whet my appetite for more travel. This week, I was in Minneapolis and Chicago, with stops in Eau Claire and Madison in between. 

This is U Wisconsin- Eau Claire, where the theatre department is producing my musical, Seeds of Change, for their spring elementary school tour. I met with the director, students and faculty and saw a performance at Augusta Elementary.

The swordfish warns Rosey Kate about ocean plastics.

Ocean "water" made by theatre magic.

Father Tree and his tree limb sword.

From Augusta, I drove through the farmlands of Wisconsin, stopping along the way for lunch at Norse Nook in Osseo and for antique shopping in Hixton. I love road trips, even the mini ones.

Madison is one of my favorite small cities, mostly because I get to see Hannah. While she was working, though, I strolled around the city like a tourist, walking along the lakefront, shopping on State Street, and visiting the Chazen Art Museum on the UW campus for the re:emancipation exhibition.

Cornell and Calder.

On the weekend, Hannah and I drove to Chicago to celebrate Charlotte's graduation from Erickson.

Sharing a delicious "chocolate cigar" for dessert at Carnivale started off the celebration.

Although there was some light rain, Chicago showed off its beautiful side in warm, spring weather, and I enjoyed getting in my steps on the riverside.

The "grande finale" and reason for the trip came on Tuesday, with the Erikson Institute commencement. Former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett spoke, as did her mother, Professor Barbara Bowman, who is one of the founders of the graduate school, which specializes in childhood education, development and social work, with an emphasis on social justice.

Charlotte is now a proud graduate with a Master's of Social Work. Congrats, Charlotte!!!

 

Spring has sprung

Currently in Wisconsin, but took some time in SoCal to enjoy the spring colors, both in the OC and up in Idyllwild, where the saplings we planted last fall made it through all the snow and are looking strong.

Bye, snow.

 

Japan by the Numbers

Believe it or not, we leave Japan tomorrow! Here’s a recap of the last few weeks.

We traveled 1,158 miles around Japan between different destinations where we laid our weary heads. 

 

We used 11 types of transportation (in chronological order):

1.     Plane

2.     Car

3.     Subway

4.     Train

5.     Bus

6.     River boat

7.     Light rail

8.     Shinkansen bullet train

9.     Ferry

10.  Cable car

11.  Gondola

 

Plus, of course, our feet. We walked 131 miles over the last 25 days. On our first full day in Tokyo, we walked 9.4 miles – our record thanks to pumping adrenaline. Our average was 5.2 miles each day – powered by coffee, green tea, and lots of sweets.

 

Here are some of our favorite Japanese phrases we used along the way:

1.     Cho oishi (very delicious)

2.     Arigato gozoimas (thank you very much) – plus okini, the variation used in the Kansai region dialect

3.     Sumimasen (excuse me)

4.     Ohayo gozoimas (good morning) / konichiwa (hello) / konbanwa (good evening)

5.     Hai (yes)

6.     Watashiwa Lauren/Hannah-des (my name is…)

7.     Sakura (cherry blossoms)

8.     Hanami (picnicking under the cherry blossoms)

9.     Cake set (this isn’t Japanese but a staple nonetheless)

10.  Makanai (this is the name for the person who cooks food for the maiko and geiko — aka geishas – in their boardinghouse. Not a seemingly useful term for us, but this show on Netflix was a constant companion of the trip.)

 

There were four types of noodles we ate often:

1.     Ramen (4x)

2.     Soba (twice)

3.     Udon (once)

4.     Konjac (these are gluten-free and made from yams. Only counts as 0.5 – only Lauren ate these, not Hannah, because why)

 

New foods we tried (much to Lauren’s chagrin, this list does not include any new dishes we tried because there were far too many to count – only ingredients/plants/animals that were entirely new to us):

1.     Burdock (a veggie that is somewhere between a parsnip, white asparagus, and an artichoke)

2.     Whale (not a fan)

3.     Sea urchin (delicious — like pâté but seafood)

4.     Conch (blegh)

5.     Eel (half-way – new for Hannah, not for Lauren. Yum)

6.     Cherry blossoms and cherry blossom leaves (fun for the vibe)

7.     Shiso, aka perilla (an herb that’s kind of a cross between mint and basil – Hannah was a fan, Lauren was not)

8.     Lots of other fish and seafood that could not possibly be identified at this time

There’s probably a lot more, but who has time for this blog when there’s Tokyo left to explore?

All our hosts

One of the best parts of the trip was meeting our Japanese hosts. All of them were contracted by the travel agency to share their traditions and customs.

Our sushi host.

The woman who assisted with the ferry between Uno and Naoshima, and who taught us origami on the ferry ride.

An intern at Obubu Tea Farm, who made us tea.

Our food tour guide in Osaka.

Our tea ceremony instructor.

Another intern who hosted us at Obubu Tea Farm.

Hakone

Konnichiwa from Hakone! We’re at our last stop before returning to Tokyo and the US, but nowhere near thinking about home yet. Well, maybe thinking about it, but not yet ready to stop exploring. 

This morning we spent several hours at the Hakone Open Air Museum, which has a wonderful collection of sculptures from around the world, including several Henry Moore, Ferdinand Leger, and Niki de Saint Phalle, whom we know well from works in Balboa Park in San Diego. There is also a building dedicated to Picasso - mostly ceramics and sculpture that I’ve never seen displayed at any other museum.

The sakura here are still in full bloom.

Look closely to see one of many moving sculptures that were “dancing” in today’s windy weather.

Hakone is a mountainous area very close to Tokyo that has many, many natural spring and mineral water onsen, so it attracts tourists from all over to its many hotels and resorts. We have a a private onsen in our room with calcium sulfate waters. (Side note to Pa: This ryokan is called Susukinohara Ichinoyu, which reminds me that Grandma Rose used to always say the Yiddish phrase “kinehora” to ward off the evil spirits.)

The reason that there are mineral springs here is that Mount Hakone is a volcano! Although it last erupted in 2015, steam and sulfur still can be seen from above the crater. To see it for ourselves, we took a bus, a cable car and a gondola to the top.

Here you can see the steam from the crater.

Mountain view from the cable car.

This is kuro tomago or black eggs. They’re actually just regular chicken eggs but are boiled in mineral waters (sulfur and iron) that turn the shell black. Eating them (which we did, naturally) is supposed to prolong one’s life.

When the gondola closed because of high winds, we ended up walking down the road from the top of the volcano to Lake Ashi, formed on one of the volcano’s craters. It was a long walk, but all downhill, and at the lakeside, we stopped for a late lunch of soba noodles and tempura.

 Then it was back to the onsen for a soak before dinner. Another great day!