Road Trip Report: Meals

This is really just an attempt to make a lot of miscellaneous stuff fit into my "themed" report. It works, because (being Reeds) we rarely sat for more than five minutes without eating something. I won't bore you with the details of every meal we ate on the trip...just some of the more interesting ones. We departed St. George for San Antonio at dark:30 in the morning so, come breakfast time, we found ourselves deep in the heart of Hopi country. We stopped here for breakfast at the Cliff Dwellers Cafe. I have three things to say about it:

1. It was one of the cleanest eating establishments I have ever been in.

2. Their biscuits and gravy were some of the spiciest I've ever eaten.

3. Alvie peed all over their floor. It's a long drive from St. George to San Antonio, even divided over two days. Bill tried to stop every couple of hours at a McDonald's PlayLand so that the boys could stretch their legs. This stop was in Widow Rock, Arizona, where Ashton became bffs with Anna. They were inseparable for the twenty minutes we stayed there. A flock of sheep were in the parking lot right outside the restaurant window. Probably on their way to a special occasion... We met Emily, Eric and the girls in Fredricksburg, about 30 miles from their house and had dinner at a German restaurant, then followed them home. The Texas hill country was settled by Germans, and there are a lot of little towns in the area that still reflect that heritage; Gruene, Boerne, New Braunfels, Fredricksburg, etc. They are all a short drive from S.A. and really fun to visit. Wooden sidewalks, cute shops, interesting restaurants...the total tourist package. On Tuesday, we went to Brackenridge Park, right in the heart of the city of San Antonio. It is huge and contains the Japanese Tea Gardens, golf course, zoo and lots of hiking and picnicking areas. Here we are taking a lunch break between touring the gardens and doing the zoo. More on that adventure in my final report... This is the Gristmill Restaurant in Gruene. We spent the afternoon there on Thursday. The restaurant is right on the river which is very popular with "toobers". After lunch, we walked to the general store and had ice cream at their old fashioned soda fountain. Then, while Bill watched the kids, Emily, Sarah and I visited an antique store and craft store where I mentally stole a lot of really cute ideas. Bill entertained the kids by giving them each his business card and telling them to call him if they ever need a job. Thursday night we packed up the cooler again and headed over to HemisFair Park where we camped out on the ground to watch "Kung Fu Panda" with about a thousand other people. It was projected onto the side of a big limestone building. Very fun! Sarah, being pregnant, needed something more gourmet than the food we had brought from home. Craving a gas station fried burrito, she had to settle for nachos.

Red Vines, anyone?

These two really know their sweets! This is the bakery at Mi Tierra,the restaurant we ate at after Abby's baptism on Saturday. I thought the food was good, but very different from California-style Mexican food. We have noticed that in Texas, Mexican food involves more sauces and even a kind of "gravy." Did I mention that Mi Tierra is a very festive restaurant? Obviously, the decor did not serve to distract Ellie and Alvie. Leaving San Antonio on Monday, we detoured through Lubbock and had a wonderful "family reunion" at Joe's Crab Shack. Liza and the kids drove down from Amarillo to meet us and we were joined by Bill's sister, Laura, her husband, Harvey, their two grandsons, Josh and Paul and Liza's friend, Brooke Thomas, who all live in Lubbock. After three hours of eating and visiting we started getting visits at our table from the manager who kept wondering if there was anything else he could do for us. Seeing the Clements really whetted our appetites for their upcoming visit. They will be here on July 3 for a three week visit. We can't wait!!!! Honestly, how many other grandmothers can say that they have the best-looking grand kids in the world? Twelve plus two on the way and not an ugly one in the bunch!

Next time: Water

Road Trip Report: Music

A little background before I segue into today's topic:

When people marry, they each bring specific cultural and familial traditions to the table. Learning to mesh those traditions into a new family unit is part of making a marriage work. In our case, I introduced the concept of Jello-O as salad and an obsessive need for organization and control. Bill brought with him an immense love of music. And the idea that bacon grease is a condiment.

It's the whole music thing that we're getting into with today's road report. But first, a bit more background...

In my childhood home, music was not a destination. Like wallpaper, we were dimly aware of it in the background, but it never intruded into our consciousness. Music in the car was played at a level just loud enough to cover any awkward silences, but low enough that conversation could take place unimpeded. My Dad owned one album, "Eddie Arnold's Greatest Hits." Someone gave it to him as a gift. I'm not sure he ever played it. The only music we regularly listened to was in church on Sundays, and while we all took piano lessons, it was with the express purpose of being able to play in church if ever needed. Music as duty/wallpaper.

In Bill's home they DID music. It wasn't a means to an end--it WAS the end. Like a scene from The Waltons, they would gather in the front room and play their fiddles, banjos and guitars. Everything else stopped for the music. I still remember the first time I asked Bill to turn down the car radio so that we could talk (and hear ourselves think). He looked at me like I was crazy.

So, keep this in mind when I tell you that last Friday, while we were in San Antonio, Bill announced that we would be driving to Austin that night to hear his brother, John, play at a legendary Texas honky-tonk called The Broken Spoke. He was obviously looking forward to it. I was not. I have nothing against John or his music, it's just not in my nature to embrace an evening of loud music in the company of drunks. My first instinct was to wonder if the mood lighting at "The Spoke" would allow me to read a book or do some needlework. Remember... Unlike Bill, I have not been programmed from my youth to look forward to an evening of "honky-tonking."

But I snapped out of it and decided to approach the evening like any new cultural experience. After all, it might be fun. Like the karaoke competition at the German restaurant in Bangkok...

We met John at his apartment and spent an hour watching him change the strings on his two guitars. John is a man of precise, careful movements with an innate inability to hurry, so this was a little like watching paint dry. Then we headed over to The Spoke and spent a couple of hours watching people drink Lone Star beer and dance the Texas two-step in a place that can be charitably described as "a dump." That sound you hear is my honorary friend-of-Texas card being ripped to shreds.
The music was good and people were having a great time. In a weird way, the intensity on the faces of some of the dancers made me feel like I was at a Trekkie convention. With different costumes. I'm just saying...Some of those folks take their dancing MIGHTY seriously!
The strangest thing, though, was that every time the band played "I've Been Working on the Railroad," everyone stopped dancing and saluted the stage. I finally realized that they were actually playing "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You," which sounds very much the same. I still don't get it.

On Saturday we had a different sort of cultural experience. Following Abby's baptism (which will be discussed in an upcoming report) we all went to Mi Tierra for lunch. Mi Tierra is an extraordinarily festive Mexican restaurant in Market Square--kind of like Olvera Street in L.A. There is an outdoor plaza and stage, lots of little shops and the Mi Tierra bakery and restaurant.
Because she was the guest of honor, Abby was serenaded with an impromptu number in Spanish which, loosely translated, was (I think) "Happy Birthday, Holy Baptism."

Ashton is the short guy in the seersucker suit.

The musical feast did not end with our lunch. Outside, in the plaza, there was a Selena-inspired talent competition taking place. The kids were so moved by the emotional intensity of the music that they performed an impromptu dramatic rendition of "Nacho Saves the Princesses."

Next time: Meals

Road Trip Report: Meat

We had a wonderful trip to and from San Antonio, via St. George. If Emily weren't so busy being The Blog Fairy, she could easily obtain gainful employment with the San Antonio visitor's bureau. She organized a full calendar for us, featuring many of the area's most delightful attractions. I have WAY too much to say for just one blog, so I will be doing four blogs, based loosely around the following themes; meat, music, meals and water. In this blog, we will talk about meat...

San Antonio is in the Texas hill country. It is hilly (hence the aforementioned designation) and it is covered with oak trees. Apparently, these are ideal conditions for the deer which are to San Antonio as pigeons are to Central Park. It is hard to drive through Emily's neighborhood without encountering deer (dead and alive) on a weekly basis. But there is a neighborhood that the deer like even better. Emily drove us through the winding streets of a development where it is unusual NOT to have several deer lounging around your yard. Friends of Emily and Eric's have even had deer come inside their house and play with the kids. Here is a representative picture of life in Timberwood Park:

Crazy, huh?

I know that right now you are scratching your head and saying, "I thought the theme was meat?" Just be patient...in the meantime, think of deer as a sub theme.

Early in the week, Emily took us to Fort Sam Houston in the heart of downtown San Antonio. It is an historic (and active) military installation where the army housed Geronimo following his capture. The fort is built around a large, grassy area called the Quadrangle. Being in the Quadrangle is like being in the Disney version of "Snow White." There are ducks, rabbits, peacocks, and deer, and they are all tame. We brought bags of carrots for the kids to feed to the deer. It was hilarious watching Alvie chase after them, holding out a chunk of carrot and yelling, "Eat! Eat!"


Some communities might see urban deer herds as a problem, but those Texans are problem-solvers. They have apparently launched a marketing campaign to help them deal with a surplus of deer. And now we're getting to the "meat" part...

I snapped a picture of a local business, with their marketing plan painted on a side wall for all to see. I'm not sure it's really taken off yet, but give it time...

In Tuba City, Arizona, in the heart of the Navajo Nation, they are running a different promotion:

I will leave you to ponder the special occasions which might be enlivened by the addition of a sheep or two. (Actually, what special occasion WOULDN'T be made more exciting with sheep?) Next time...Music.

On the Road Again

We went on GREAT road trips when the kids were young. We felt like we invented road trips! Almost every summer (and some winters), we would head out with the five kids and make the big, 3,000 mile loop from our home in Oxnard, California to Amarillo, Texas (to visit Bill's family), then up to Bozeman, Montana (to visit my family), then back home to California. Along the way we saw wonderful things. We visited Smokey the Bear's grave, Billy the Kid's grave and the graves at the Little Bighorn. We saw the Grand Canyon, explored the cliff dwellings at Walnut Canyon and the Indian ruins at Chaco Canyon. We saw the Gunfight at the OK Corral reenacted in Tombstone, Arizona and paid our respects at Boot Hill. We slid down the White Sands of New Mexico on sheets of cardboard, drove through the Petrified Forest and toured Carlsbad Caverns. In Yellowstone National Park we shared a winter fireside and roasted wieners with a handful of hungry elk. We stood on the roof of the Old Faithful Lodge and watched Old Faithful erupt at midnight. We rafted the Yellowstone River and swam in the hot springs. Good times...

We achieved almost professional "travelling with kids" status. I taught countless mini classes on the subject and, to add to my credentials, let me remind you that this was in the days before personal DVD players and Game Boys. We actually had to entertain kids...for miles and miles and miles. Not only that, we did it on a shoestring budget...very few restaurant stops on the road. We shopped at grocery stores along the way and picnicked in city parks. We did our laundry in small town laundromats, and slept in the car by the side of the road. Well, some of us slept. Some of us stayed up most of the night trying to keep the kids quiet so that the driver could sleep.

I know there were times when the back seat fighting nearly drove us insane. But, like childbirth, we have forgotten most of the pain and just remember the good times. Although I DO remember having to divide the back seat once with masking tape borders to keep people from crossing the lines and touching each other.

On Thursday of this week we are leaving for a two week road trip, a repeat of one we did in December of 2007. I guess we're just crazy for travelling with kids because we will be picking up Sarah and her two boys, Ashton and Alvie, in St. George, then driving south and east with them to San Antonio for Abby's baptism. It's a trip of 1,300 miles. I am sure we will make a lot of fine memories. But in every other way this will be much different from the trips of old. Ashton and Alvie will have their DVD player, Bill will have his satellite radio, and we will be sleeping in Hampton Inns.

I plan to take photos of some of the more interesting things we see and I will share (whether you like it or not) when I return.

Summer Reading Program

I need to thank Emily for taking me by the hand and leading me (temporarily, at least) out of the world of literary murder and mayhem. While mysteries have always been my first love, starting when I read the complete works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at age twelve, I am open minded enough to allow occasional exceptions. For example, I will read anything written by Garrison Keillor, Maeve Binchy, or Larry McMurtry. (I know, it's kind of a mixed bag.) It's not that I limit my non-mystery reading to these authors, it's just that I'm kind of lazy and fear change. It's always appreciated when someone I trust hands me a book and says, "Here, read this. I promise you'll like it."

Such was the case with Emily's recommendation of "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society."

What a wonderful book!

If you love books, enjoy gentle humor, are inspired by stories of human triumph and friendship, are intrigued by history, relish eccentricity, or any of the fore mentioned in any combination, you will love this book.

I am so filled with missionary zeal I would like to make an offer...

I will send soft cover copies of "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" to the first three commenters who request it. Unless you are immediate family, I will also need your address. But don't put it in your comment--just hit the "e-mail me" button on the right.

Happy Reading!