Summer Travel
Searching for Greener Pastures (and Cooler Temperatures)!
August means summer vacation! And this year was no exception. Off I flew to visit friends in Minnesota and family in Rhode Island. There were cars and planes, bikes and boats, airports and a train station. Good coffee, fine wine, and an abundance of delicious food. Wildflowers, garden flowers, and butterflies. A sandy beach, a rolling river and a creek, a swimming pool and a swimming hole. Long conversations, walks and rides, dogs and kids, music and singing, streamers and a cake, and lots of relaxation. On top of all that, the weather was cool and everything was soooo green!
Deep bow of gratitude to dear friends, nearly family, Pam and Jim Adams and their whole tribe for hosting me at their spread in Milaca, Minnesota. Another deep bow to my recently discovered family, almost the whole Morrow gang, who gathered in Hope Valley, Rhode Island, at Christina Morrow and Eric Bibler’s home.
Heart Full of Gratitude - The Three Women
When I stepped out on the John Muir Trail in the summer of 2006, I walked beside two friends. Without Cappy (Caroline) Hickson and Jane Riedel, there would have been no journey, no trek, no sojourn, no adventure to write about!
We were thrilled to be dubbed with the trail name “The Three Women” by fellow travelers we met along the first leg of the trail. It was an acknowledgment of our team bond—we were a unit, sisters, stronger together. If you’ve read my adventure memoir, Force of Nature, then you know just how difficult those first few days were for us. There was that lightning storm on Donahue Pass, blisters and a sprained ankle, a moment when we were “misplaced,” a scary river crossing, the camera disaster, and sooo much rain.
If I’d been alone, I might well have become discouraged and turned back. Instead, being part of The Three Women bolstered my courage, strength, and spirit just long enough for the rain to stop, the sun to come out, the mosquitoes to disappear, and my injuries to heal. I’m deeply grateful to these two amazing women.
When Jane left us as planned after the first leg, Cappy and I hiked on as a duo. We lamented the loss of our beloved trail name. The Two Women just didn’t have the same ring to it. I won’t spoil the story for those who’ve not yet read it, but suffice it to say, we rescued our trail name when we adopted a young woman hiker into our team. (I called her Zoe in the book.) We once again became The Three Women!
Together, after 27 days, nearly 200 miles, and many wonderful adventures, we three stood, our early tribulations long forgotten, atop 14,500-foot Mount Whitney, at the abrupt end of the JMT, as a very happy, very excited trio!
I bow deeply in gratitude to The Other Three Women who accompanied me on all or part of this amazing once-in-a-lifetime adventure—Jane, who started, Zoe, who finished, and, most of all, Cappy, who walked with me every step of the way!
You can get to know all three of these lovely ladies in the pages of Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle The John Muir Trail.
August Field Trip - California Academy of Science in San Francisco
My Artist’s Way-inspired field trip (a la Julia Cameron) was another west-to-the-sea road trip. The California Academy of Sciences, located near the de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is a venerated museum that’s also cutting edge. I took my time enjoying the new California: State of Nature exhibit, but I also savored my old favorite, the Osher Rainforest.
State of Nature focuses on the vast diversity of California’s ecosystems and the flora and fauna that populate them, as well as the impacts, both positive and negative, that humans have had on those spectacular natural settings. It was a weekend, so there were lots of families with young children, all of them enthralled with the vivid displays and hands-on “touch me, please” exhibits designed especially for young hands and minds. (I have to admit this 70-year-old enjoyed the multi-sensory, interactive displays as much as any of the 7-year-olds around me!)
The Osher Rainforest* is a three-story, glass-enclosed cylander in the center of the Academy. Visitors begin at the bottom and follow the pathway that spirals its way gently upward through the levels of the living rainforest from ground level beside a living river to the top of the airy canopy. Bird and butterflies populate the middle and upper levels, while fish and water creatures thrive in the river. It always takes me a long time to make the trek to the top (where an elevator returns visitor to the ground), because there are so many creatures to observe. This visit, it was the butterflies that had me hypnotized and my camera clicking away.
The Steinhart Aquarium, opened in 1923, over 100 years ago, and now quite updated, is a fascinating gem of the Academy that can’t be missed, as is the tucked away Hidden Wonders room. Lunch at the Terrace provides a delightful foot-resting break.
[*The Osher Rainforest has been sponsored for decades by the same Osher Family Foundation that supports the OLLI, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, that I’m so involved with at Sierra College, both as student and teacher.]
August Books (And a Documentary)
With all my traveling and visiting and playing, I managed to read only three books in August! (And I watched an awesome documentary on one of my long plane flights that I’ve just got to share with you!)
The Secret Book of Flora Lea, by an accomplished veteran author who is new to me, Patti Callahan Henry, absolutely mezmorized me! The author deftly bends genres and time frames and creates a strong, determined woman for the main character that I could not help but love. 5*
Recipe:
One heaping cup grand historical fiction - set in wartime Britain, when city kids were sent to the countryside during The Blitz.
One cup contemporary fiction - set in and around a delightful used bookstore.
Half cup magical realism, or was that simply hope, luck, and coincidence?
Quarter cup gentle decades-long mystery that just won’t go away.
One level tablespoon of nostalgic romance.
Katharine’s Remarkable Road Trip, by Gail Ward Olmsted (a sister Black Rose Writing author), was a perfect read/listen for my recent road trip to San Francisco. It’s a little bit like that iconic road-trip memoir Travels With Charlie, but at 10mph in 1907 in Ford’s latest Model K, with a 77-year-old independent woman at the wheel. What an adventure she experienced! Oh, and the fascinatingly quaint people she met along the way! I rooted for her along every dusty, winding mile between New York and New Hampshire. This historical novel is based on the very real life of a gutsy woman. 5*
In My Boots: A Memoir of Five Million Steps Along the Appalachian Trail, by Amanda K. Jaros (another sister Black Rose Writing author), was what’s called an ARC, or an Advanced Reader Copy, so this memoir is not yet available to purchase, nor does it yet have a final cover design (soon!) I was drawn to read In My Boots, because of its similarity to my own Force of Nature, and was jazzed to find I loved it! The AT is much longer than the JMT, and the envirnoment it winds through is very different from the JMT’s High Sierra, but the personal hopes, challenges, thrills, disappointments, and the trail community relationships are much the same, and I felt deeply every step Amanda took on that trail. Keep an eye out for this one when it launches. 5*
COPA 71 - Documentary Extraordinaire about strong, rebelous women athletes and the powerful, vengeful men in control. The producers describe it this way: “The extraordinary story of the 1971 Women's World Cup, which was held in Mexico City and witnessed by more than 100,000 fans. This landmark tournament was dismissed by FIFA and written out of sports history - until now.” The film combines historical footage with modern interviews and is astoundingly good. Whether you are interested in sports or not, this is a fascinating, long-hidden true story of grit and determination that’s well worth the $5 to stream it!
Summer Night Sky Poem
I wrote this in my journal on one very clear, very dark moonless night high above tree-line, high above 10,000 feet, in the Sierra Nevada, along the John Muir Trail, during the August Perseid meteor shower, and beside a small still glacier-carved pond.
Sierra Sky Lights
Fireworks, frozen mid-burst,
Silver sparks of light hanging motionless,
Twinkling overhead,
Not falling,
A king's ransom of diamonds
Scattered carelessly across black velvet.
Silver asterisks, diving Earthward,
Perform a hundred somersaults and a thousand full twists,
From the highest of high dives,
Slicing the ebony surface with silent splashes
To float,
Still aflame,
Bobbing silver corks.One Last Thing - School Is Starting!
For nearly my whole life, I've operated on an academic calendar. There's something special about getting a new beginning every year, a chance to try something new or put a different twist on something familiar.
OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at Sierra College’s Fall Semester classes began this week. My own classes begin soon. Check the online catalogue to see all the in-person and Zoom classes. I’ll continue my monthly Spotlight On Local Authors Interview Series, and lead two literature discussion classes about the historical novels The Women by Kristin Hannah and Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray. I’ll be joining a stellar group of local scientists to lead another book discussion with the nonfiction book Eager about the important role of beavers in healthy watersheds.
Hi Joan, great to read of your summer travel to Rhode Island this summer! Thinking of you. Joyce
Joan. I love your poem. Hopefully see you soon. nanci