You can go anywhere in the world in April and May. (Springtime in Paris!) But where do you go in August, when everyone in Italy is on vacation, Europe is overrun with Americans, and it’s broiling almost everywhere?
Eureka, California, is your answer. Summer didn’t really arrive until around the Fourth of July, and now that it’s August, every day is glorious, with bright sun and temperatures peaking a bit over 70°. There is always breeze off the ocean. As soon as the sun goes down, temperatures drop. You can open your windows and cool your surroundings without any air conditioning. It may be misty in the morning, but that gives you a chance to enjoy your coffee and get a start on the day.
Wine country is hot at this time of year, but it is not too far from Eureka. You can drive out during the day, taste some excellent wine, and retreat to cool weather. You can purchase fresh fish from a boat moored at Woodley Island and watch the seals beg for scraps.
At the edge of town, you can walk along nearly deserted beaches, hike among the redwoods, or set up your lawn chairs and cooler at a swimming hole along one of the rivers. I always recall August as empty of activities, but not here. There are festivals every weekend, farmers markets, night markets, and the Victorian main street of Ferndale to visit.
Clockwise from upper L: Swimming along the Eel River; a beachcombing trophy (No, I didn’t bring it home); Oyster farming basket that got loose during a storm; tree trunk full of woodpecker holes.
The Humboldt County Fair is this week, if you’d like to see livestock and eat funnel cakes. We went to a preview of the horticultural building with the Garden Club, then returned to see the animals and I even went on a ride.
Clockwise from upper left: Lyra on the climbing wall, the Zipper, getting off the Zipper, specialty chicken, guinea pig in a sleeping bag.
If you are not in the mood for the Humboldt County Fair, there’s music. The SoHum Girls played at one of the concerts at the Humboldt Botanical Garden (photo in the banner of this post) or the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival. The chamber music was excellent. We saw them last month (Chamber Music) and looked forward to their second swing through our area. This time the setting was the most beautiful church imaginable, set at the edge of the woods. Who needs stained glass when there’s a view of redwoods from every window?
Edwin Huizinga playing Chaconne from Violin Partita in D Minor by J.S. Bach at the Arcata Lutheran Church
In August, there are wild blackberries, fruit of the invasive Himalayan blackberry, a prickly weed that overtakes anything it can. The berries are full of seeds, too, but they are abundant. Jonathan and I can pick enough for jam or sorbet in 30 minutes or less. After sorting through the berries to remove twigs and leaves, we cook the berries for about ten minutes and then strain the pulp. To make sorbet, all I add is a cup of water, a cup of sugar, and the juice of a lime. Every hour I stir the mix, and after 2-3 hours, I whip it in the mixer for a minute or so and put the resulting sorbet in the freezer.
There’s a terrible irony to these lovely surroundings. While those of us in Eureka enjoy perfect weather, most places around us are hot. A heat wave is engulfing California and Oregon. Portland, more than 400 miles north of us, has had highs over 100°. Fires are igniting from lightning strikes in the mountains east of us, and much of the rest of California is hot, as well. This week it also poured rain in Southern California as the tail of the first hurricane to make landfall since 1850 swirled up the Sea of Cortez and through downtown LA. In Eureka, we are a small green spot on the weather map.
(and we’ve only had one noticeable earthquake this month…)
Eureka may be a bit remote for some people. During the month of August, though, it is the perfect spot.
Fern Canyon is a natural gully of fern covered walls up to 50 feet high along both sides of a stream near Orrick, CA. The access road is five miles of unpaved gravel and dust. There are several dips over ruts from storm runoff, and two places where you drive through water in the creek. The park website doesn’t recommend driving in a low center auto, but we did pass a Prius coming out as we went in. July and August are the driest months and most amenable to visiting is a regular sedan. I wouldn’t try it during the rainy season (Nov-May).
It’s become quite a draw for visitors, and this year the park service instituted a reservation system. Never having visited before, the need for a reservation didn’t bother me, I picked a date a few weeks ahead and made a reservation. I read there were no stores or restaurants nearby, making a picnic essential. Packed and ready, we headed north. It takes just about an hour to get to the turnoff for Fern Canyon from Eureka. We were able to carpool from the Elk Prairie Picnic area, and were able to use a single reservation for our group despite the two cars.
The new permit system means that parking was available at the trailhead, and we set off on our hike. We walked a loop up the canyon, then back along the cliff edge looking down over the creek.
The trail follows the creekbed and in the middle of summer when we visited, it was possible to walk without getting wet by following the trail and walking on the board sections set down over the water. There were lots of opportunities for wading by those who wanted to, though in the rainy months, wet feet are a near-certainty.
There is a lot more climbing up and down than the words “creek bed” suggest, too. A lot of trees fell during the storms of last winter, and though gaps have been cut to make the path accessible, tree trunks extend into the path in many places. It was not a difficult walk, but there was a lot of up and down.
The walls of ferns and moss were beautiful, accompanied by the sound of trickling water. It was a live sound machine. We took photos of each other in front of the ferns and moss, and chatted with the hikers we passed. You don’t see them in the photos, but we visited on a Saturday when all the permits for the day were issued. We passed hikers in one and twos every couple of minutes–it’s not a solitary ramble.
I should have realized there had to be stairs as part of this loop, and our route back included steps up the side of the canyon and then back down again when we approached our starting point at the end. It wasn’t a difficult hike at all, and takes about an hour, but it’s not comfortable for anyone who struggles with stairs and slippery spots.
We picnicked at the tables near the trailhead, and agreed that Fern Canyon was a beautiful and relaxing spot. Gold Bluffs Beach is only a short walk away and is covered by the same reservation/parking permit. We went for a stroll along the waves after lunch. I’d visit again to spend more time along the beach, or make it a separate trip. The beach is very long–I could easily spend a couple of hours. This is a place worth visiting on your way through from California to Oregon, or as a day trip from either Eureka or Crescent City.
June through September are the months of summer in Humboldt, but July has the best sun. The Fortuna Rodeo is a fixture of summer, taking place the weekend after July 4. Amanda and Jim are fans, so we went along, and they were right, it’s one of the best activities out here. Our choice was to go on Sunday, to see the barrel-racing. This event seems to be the province of young women, though I’ve read that it is for everyone among younger riders.
Fortunately for us, the Fortuna Rodeo Grounds has a huge set of bleachers, barely occupied when we arrived, where we found seats without having to do much climbing. From our base, we strolled the booths of food, drink, and rodeo souvenirs, returning to perch on the bleachers. We’ll remember to bring cushions to sit on next year.
Events got underway promptly at noon, complete with a rodeo clown between events. The day was cool and sunny when we arrived, perfect weather. A stream of people arrived from the very start and continued all afternoon. More were arriving even as we left in the late afternoon.
Internet photo
The first event was by far the funniest. I’d never heard of mutton-busting, but it seems to be a well-known rodeo event. It introduces small children to rodeo competition. Kids aged 4-7 who weigh less than 55 lbs. try to stay on the back of an adult sheep for eight seconds. The sheep don’t buck, but are terrified to have something on them. They run out of the same gate as the bucking broncos and head for the fence, or the nearest sheep. The kids dig their hands into the sheep’s fleece and hold on for dear life, gradually slipping to the side and off into the dirt (yes, they wear helmets). Some kids hit the dirt just out of the gate, and others hang on for several seconds. They don’t fall much more than 18 inches, so it’s not a big bump, but it is in the middle of the field in front of all those people. The winner of our competition got on the sheep backwards, putting one foot on each side of its head, and digging his hands into the fleecy rear flanks. He stayed on for the entire eight seconds. [Jada, the woman who cuts my hair, turns out to be a rodeo girl. She started with mutton-busting as a kid. I asked whether she wanted to do it and she said her mom had been a high school rodeo rider and insisted she try. They put her on the sheep crying and yelling and her mom said, “Don’t you let go until the announcer says time.” She hung on because that’s what her mom told her to do. She didn’t hear any of the announcements and they had to come and take her off the sheep in a pen around in the back where it had gone to be with the other sheep. She won the event.]
The rider on the right has roped the horns of the calf. The rider on the left is trying to rope a rear leg. He missed.
We saw bronc-riding. At my age all I can think of is how hard it shakes each rider’s bones. Only one of the riders we watched managed to stay on the entire ten seconds, and then he had to get off a bucking horse. There were a few events that involved roping calves. In one, the calf is roped, the rider dismounts and throws the animal on its side. In another, the legs of the calf have to be tied together. In team events, one rider ropes the calf around the horns, while the other has to rope one hoof, a feat that proved nearly impossible. Ribbon-roping was a fun one, as the mounted member of the team has to rope the calf’s horns or head, then the other team member runs out from the side of the arena to pull off the blue ribbon attached to the animal’s tail. That turns out to be more difficult than it sounds, as the runner has to avoid getting kicked.
The best came last, barrel-racing. It’s a timed event where each rider circles three barrels in a set pattern, starting and ending behind a line about 20 yards away. It was my favorite event, and we cheered for everyone. [Jada now competes in the ribbon roping and barrel racing. This year she declined to participate after her partner in the ribbon roping broke his collarbone in another event. She didn’t want to risk bruises on her face when she gets married–the week after the rodeo].
Sunday afternoon at the rodeo. Aurora was about ready to head for home, but no one got sunburned.
I definitely recommend the Fortuna Rodeo if you’re in the Humboldt region in early July.
It takes about 3 ½ hours to get to Santa Rosa from our home in Eureka. It’s a beautiful drive through redwood forests and the rural California landscape of dry pastures, grazing cattle, and grapevines. We recently made our monthly trip to Santa Rosa and while there, took some extra time to celebrate my birthday.
In the summer, I appreciate that Santa Rosa is much warmer than Eureka. I took a dip in the hotel pool as soon as we arrived, since I have to stay out of the water for a couple of days after my eye injection. After my late afternoon appointment and a short nap, we were ready to celebrate by having dinner at a lovely restaurant in Healdsburg, CA, where we usually stay.
Healdsburg has gone from a tiny settlement serving rural communities to a wine destination full of upscale stores and fine restaurants. We went to dinner at The Matheson, a relatively new restaurant that is now listed in the Michelin guide. It may become competition for the Michelin-starred restaurants in the area, Single Thread and Barndiva. It was not difficult to get a reservation at The Matheson for Thursday at 7 pm.
When we arrived, we found The Matheson is known for its Wine Wall, a selection of more than 90 wines by the glass, sold in portions ranging from a quarter to a full glass. A personal tasting can be assembled from their lengthy wine list by anyone sitting in the bar area. Diners can order from a slightly less extensive wine list, again in a variety of sizes. The list allowed each of us to have two different wines with dinner. I think it’s a great idea. I’d like to go back and try more.
There is a chef’s menu of four courses each evening. Wine pairings are available, too, either local selections or international. Our server went over the chef’s menu that evening but we opted to make our own choices. We shared an appetizer of risotto that was a lovely green color, seasoned with nettle, green garlic, and pale rock shrimp. All I tasted was deliciousness. Our main dishes were duck, and halibut, each accompanied by airy blends of potato and root vegetable. Dessert was another high point, I had chocolate in several forms and Jonathan had apricot sorbet and pastry. We went home happy.
In the morning we got coffee and found some breakfast. Our goal for the day was to go wine tasting. We stopped to buy some wine at Graziano, where we belong to the wine club, and to say hello to John, our favorite wine rep.
With wine stowed in the car we went on to visit a new winery for us, the DeLorimier Vineyards, and on a sunny day like this one, we sat on the patio with a view over the fields. It was Friday, still relatively early, and we were almost the only people there. The host asked what we were interested in, offering to let us taste whatever we liked best. I tasted whites, Jonathan tasted reds, and we left with a case of wine. The outdoor patio at DeLorimier is comfortable and shady. We would go back there with friends for tasting. We arrived home mid-afternoon, well supplied with wine until next month’s journey.
Sunday, we held a birthday party. I decided that we would have tea sandwiches and quiche followed by sparkling wine and cake. The festivities started at 11:30 AM so that we could go to the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival at 2:00 PM. The concert was held at the Morris Graves Art Museum in downtown Eureka. Jonathan made finger sandwiches and I made a wonderful birthday cake. Called Italian cream cake, the recipe included pecans and coconut. I put extra coconut between the layers along with chopped pecan brittle that I made myself and topped it all with cream cheese frosting. The result was so delicious that I only have photographs of the food. (And a picture of baby Aurora in her new Heidi dress from her great aunt and uncle’s trip to Switzerland.) There were funny cards and sparkling rosé, and we swept off to the concert.
Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival is a real find. This group of musicians gathers in rural Humboldt County over the summer and makes two swings through the region, playing in venues from Weaverville to Mendocino. The program had to be changed at the last minute due to illness of a violinist, but the second half, Ravel’s Piano Trio, and the summer movement of The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla, were both excellent. I love Piazzolla’s music—he wrote a lot of pieces for tango, and this year’s composer in residence at Trinity Alps plays accordion as well as piano, and thus knows the world-famous tango composer’s music.
The Ravel was also excellent. I was thinking Bolero, but his piano trio has a lot going on in it and a very dramatic final movement. I’ve put the festival’s August swing through our area on the calendar. The audience was very enthusiastic and elicited one of the best encores I’ve ever experienced, Oblivion, another piece by Piazzolla. It was entrancing, and a fitting birthday celebration.
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I don’t ordinarily see any of the ads that appear in my blog. I have no control over who advertises and where the ads appear, it’s the cost of using WordPress. I have seen some that I personally do not like. For example, I just noticed something that mentioned Eminem, whose lyrics are strongly prejudiced against women. I would never willingly advertise anything he or his name was attached to. Let me know if you see an offensive ad. I can always reconsider what platform I use.
Our final day on tour took us from chilly Arachova back to Athens. We saw beautiful snow-capped mountains off to the north as we headed south, then turned off the highway to visit one last Mycenean site.
Gla, or Glas, was a large Mycenean fortress that was the center of a network of forts during the end of the Mycenean era, around 1300 BC. We saw the remains of imposing gateways through walls of huge stone quarried nearby and rolled into place.
One of the four main gates of Gla
Having just visited beautifully restored Mycenae, the Treasury of Atreus, and the Palace of Nestor, we didn’t take a long walk at Gla. Perhaps we should have. This lesser known site may be the ancient city of Orchomenos, now attributed to a nearby locality. Archaeological research that began in 2010 has shown that the extensive city walls (seven times the length of Mycenae’s) enclosed houses, shops, and small fields. Two structures may have been for agricultural storage, and the collection of taxes (in goods). Most Bronze Age sites like this one are mentioned by Homer in the Iliad, and during excavation yield offices full of clay tablets that provide names and dates. An intriguing suggestion is that the single badly eroded corner of Gla held records that were destroyed in the collapse. Thus, Gla has remained unidentified. An article that digs into the mystery of the site and how it is being unraveled is below.
Our final stop was the Archaeological Museum in the city of Thebes. Like other museums, it has some spectacular items on display collected from sites in the region including Orchomenos. It may add pieces from Gla in future years. I particularly liked the depictions of sea creatures, octopus, squid, and fish. The dolphins are painted in Minoan style similar to the wall paintings at Knossos on Crete.
As always, there were many beautiful objects, mostly from tombs, that showed the artistry of people long ago.
Every different style that we associate with ancient Greece was represented in the collection at Thebes.
It certainly looks like the designers from Star Wars stopped by to take notes. Eventually, we had to keep going. There was lunch on the horizon back in Athens at Strofi, a very nice restaurant with a view of the Acropolis that George was able to get us into. It’s moussaka is legendary, and was absolutely delicious.
Overall, our trip around the Peloponnese was magical. We saw all the archaeological sites we had longed to see, and others like Gla that we knew nothing about but were glad to be introduced to. The museums hold so many treasures that we become jaded by yet another lifelike sculpture, golden bead, or signet ring carved with a team of horses. We are grateful to Aristotle and George for making it all work.
Tour Manager:
George Gaitis, Pictours of Greece, 0030 697 2026 519
It rained overnight in Nafpaktos. I went out to the shore in the morning between showers, saw some fishermen heading home, and the remains of a Venetian fortress, but didn’t find any beach glass.
We headed for Delphi to hear from the oracle. Delphi is located in rough country, a lovely drive when someone else is at the wheel.
We visited the museum first, where we admired relief carvings made for the Sifnian Treasury. Treasuries held donations and offerings to the temples from specific localities. The Athenian Treasury at Delphi was known for displaying items captured in the Battle of Marathon.
Upper L: The Athenian Treasury; All others: Panels that surrounded the Sifnian Treasury.
Cities vied for position–Sifnos hired famous sculptors, Naxos installed a Sphinx atop a column 36 ft (12 m) high. Other offerings included a life sized bull made of beaten gold and silver, and three ivory and gold statues (Apollo, Artemis, and Leto).
In the museum at Delphi: The Sphinx of Naxos, down from its tall perch; the beaten gold and silver, bull; and a goddess feeling rather smug because she’s made of ivory and gold.
We stopped for a late lunch at Baxos (Bacchus) in Delphi and went on to the site. Delphi stretches up the slope of a mountain to the base of a cliff. It reminded me of Kayenta, AZ.
This looks just like parts of northern Arizona (just add a Greek oracle and her temple!)
Despite its location on a rocky hillside, Delphi had all the features of a Greek city. In addition to its agora and theater it had a stadium, a bouleterion (council room), asklepion (for healing), lots of treasuries, and a remarkable number of inscriptions by those who visited.
(Clockwise from L): The Temple of Apollo; the theater; a view over the agora at Delphi.
In Olympia, each dedication might have been part of a freestanding monument, but at Delphi there are so many that a carefully constructed stone wall turns out to have inscriptions carved into many of its component blocks.
The Temple of Apollo was the place from which the oracle delivered prophesies. Sadly, there was no oracle in attendance. We enjoyed the sun and the whispering of the breeze, but couldn’t make out the words. There are many theories about what made the oracle at Delphi so highly regarded for so long, from at least 800 BC to around AD 600. A favorite is that vapors emerging from the crevices in the earth below the Temple of Apollo put the individual into a drugged state from which their speech emerged. Others say the oracle spoke gibberish, and priests translated her words into poetic, enigmatic prophesies. Both of these interpretations are highly contested. Probably neither is true.
We may not have seen the future, but we enjoyed the day very much. It was a highlight of our tour, not because it was different from many of the other ancient cities we visited this week, but because it was Delphi, the Delphi, where the oracle spoke. I stood on the hillside and looked out and thought about all the people who have been in the same spot wondering about the world, themselves, their future. It makes you feel like part of something bigger than yourself. I could feel the continuity of history.
We eventually left for our overnight spot, Likoria Hotel in Arachova, a ski resort part of the year. We saw a bit of late afternoon sun and stopped to take pictures.
L-R: The town perches in the background of the Arachova sign; Our hotel.
There was time for a stroll through town before sunset. Arachova is a pleasant small town. Most visitors to Delphi are on day trips from Athens and don’t stay overnight in the area. The town was not thronged with visitors in the evening, though that could change in the summer. We enjoyed our stroll to To Tsoukani, where the proprietor sat down with us to go over the menu, to make sure we got what we wanted.
Pre-dinner stroll through Arachova after the rain; Reviewing the menu at To Tsoukani.
Our walk home in the dark highlighted different parts of town.
We realized that our visit to Delphi was the last full day of our tour with George and Artistotle. It’s been a long week, but a lot of fun and a true busman’s holiday for us as archaeologists.
Another beautiful day in the Peloponnese began the view out our hotel window over the water looking tranquil in the rising sun. Our first stop was the fortress of Pylos and the small museum. The view over town was gorgeous.
The museum had a few lovely examples of the fine crafts that were traded in and out of Greece in ancient times, glass vessels, fine pottery, a bathtub similar to the one we saw in Nestor’s Palace, and a rather insouciant god leaning on a tree trunk (Bacchus, naturally).
On our way out of Pylos, we stopped at the beach that was probably the “sandy Pylos” mentioned by Homer. The modern city is on a rocky promontory, but along this nearby stretch of coast there are beaches where boats could have landed easily, and a large marshy area that would have been a shallow bay two thousand years ago.
It’s a beautiful spot for birdwatching. We saw a greenfinch, a Sardinian warbler, and a woodchat shrike with a bright red head in just a few minutes. We were on our way to Olympia, so had to tear ourselves away from the beach and the birds.
We stopped in Olympia for lunch and then moved on to visit the site and the museum. The ruins of Olympia are enormous. The original games were part of a religious festival in honor of Zeus. There is a sacred precinct, and a huge temple of Zeus. To support the athletes who lived and/or visited, there was a large gymnasium, a palestra (an open area surrounded by colonnades where wrestlers practiced), and a very large stadium. The site was named Olympia after the home of the gods, Mt. Olympus in mainland Greece, as another way to honor Zeus. 776 BC is considered the date of the first Olympic Games, though there is discussion of whether athletic competitions may have been held much earlier there, and whether there was continuity in the games. Olympia has the distinction of being considered the home of Olympic competition, whatever details may turn up over time.
The Olympic Games were held every four years through AD 393. Rome conquered Greece during the 2nd century AD and the games dwindled away after that. Roman emperor Theodosius I banned all pagan cults, and some interpret that to mean the Olympic games were banned, though there are Roman additions to the site that include Christian symbols. The top photo above shows Roman construction with crosses in the decoration.
The stadium at Olympia was the heart of the Games, and had its entry tunnel, as every stadium did.
Jonathan and Aristotle staged a brief reenactment of the original Olympic footraces.
The museum at Olympia is full of objects–as a religious center, people brought offerings, often small statues, and these have been excavated and picked up from the area of the site and its surroundings.
Small, medium, and large offerings of horses by visitors to Olympia–possibly praying their chariot will win the race.
Sculpture on the pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia is much like the sculpture on the Parthenon. The East pediment depicts Zeus with Pelops and Oenomaus. Pelops killed King Oenomaus in a chariot race to win the hand of the king’s daughter Hippodamia.
The West pediment shows the battle between the Lapiths of northern Greece and the Centaurs (half man, half horse). This was symbolic of the Greek victory over barbarians, or perhaps reason over savagery. Both of these pediment sculptural friezes are better preserved than the Elgin Marbles. The battle scenes are wonderfully detailed.
Biting was a technique of the brawlers on both sides, as was pinching, punching, and throwing an elbow.
Exhausted by watching the battle, we retreated to the car and headed for our next stop, Nafpaktos. Like Pylos, Nafpaktos had a different name in the past. It was Lepanto, known for the Battle of Lepanto (1571). Where the battle off Pylos (Navarino) in 1827 was the last fought between sailing ships, the Battle of Lepanto was the last major battle fought between rowing ships that were based on the earlier Roman galleys. After the Greek Revolution, Nafpaktos reverted to its Greek name.
Nafpaktos is across the Strait of Corinth from the Peloponnese, so we bid farewell to the principal area of our explorations by crossing the spectacular Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge–the world’s longest fully suspended multi-span cable-stayed bridge [that’s a mouthful]. It is also very attractive, and has improved access to the Peloponnese since it opened the day before the start of the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.
We stayed at the Nafs Hotel in a room that overlooked the water. We had a rare evening of not choosing well for dinner at Sousouro, but called it a night after a piece of chocolate cake on the way home.
My first exposition as an artist was this week. I participated in North Coast Open Studios (NCOS), an event that invites people to visit the places artists work to see what they do and how they do it. There is the opportunity to purchase finished work, too. The event starts with Eureka’s First Friday art night in June, and continues over the first two weekends in June. Anyone in Humboldt County can register and participate.
We arrived in Eureka last year just as NCOS began, and visited a number of artist studios. On the very first night we went out, I met the event’s organizer, Monica Topping, an energetic artist with a couple of day jobs, one of which is coordinating NCOS. (I am a big fan of her work, beads made from recycled glass)
This was the first necklace that I sold during NCOS
When we are out, I always wear one of my necklaces. They’ve become a good conversation starter. As we visited the studios of NCOS artists last year, a number of people asked about my jewelry and encouraged me to join the event this year. I registered to have visitors for one of the two weekends of NCOS 2023. I also submitted one piece to be shown in the Brenda Tuxford Gallery in downtown Eureka for the month prior to NCOS.
We went to the opening of the exhibit on May 6, part of the local Arts Alive, first Friday night event in Eureka. A good crowd came to see the preview. Lots of them were like me, people who had a piece on display, plus their friends and family. It made a for easy conversation, by asking “Which one did you make?” I was surprised and pleased to find that my necklace was photographed for the 2023 NCOS poster! It looks wonderful.
I was out of town from mid-May through June 5, arriving back in Eureka just in time to prepare for my NCOS weekend. I set my jewelry out and put out my signs directing people from our front door to the alley behind our house, where the garage door opens and my “studio” is located. Our neighbors don’t drive in and out very much, so when the occasional visitor pulled up and stopped in the middle of the alley, it didn’t matter.
I was very happy with the weekend’s visitors. More than 40 people stopped by on Saturday and Sunday, Lots of questions led to lots of discussion. Many of my visitors are artists themselves. It was fun to hear about other peoples’ projects.
The weekend paid for itself, too. I sold a few necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and pins. I made a few hundred dollars, enough to pay for the NCOS registration, and jewelry supplies for the rest of the year. Whether or not I participate in more art fairs this year, I plan to be part of Open Studios again in 2024.
We drive to Santa Rosa once a month to see doctors, and rather than spend 8 hours in the car for a one hour appointment, we stay overnight, have dinner at a nice restaurant, and do a bit of exploring and wine tasting. It keeps us both much happier about the scarcity of medical specialists in the Eureka area.
We stay at the Best Western Dry Creek Inn in Healdsburg. Formerly a tiny farming settlement, Healdsburg is now a real wine town, full of restaurants and boutiques. It can get hot in the summer, and the motel has a pool.
Del Rio Woods Regional Park
On this trip, we looked for a place to explore after my appointment, and found Del Rio Woods Regional Park just a few miles away. The park surrounds a stretch of the Russian River, and the gravelly banks have become a local beach. You can tell that the area was underwater earlier in the year, but now that it’s June the water has receded to its normal banks. There are warnings online about taking care when swimming because of the speed of the current. In the Del Rio Woods area, though, the river is so shallow that all you’d need to do is put your feet down and stand up to get out of the current. Kids might enjoy a life vest for some floating fun, walking upstream and then zipping to the opposite end of the beach.
We walked along the shore, not tempted by the water on this particular day when the wind was blowing. There are some substantial beach shelters set up by those who own houses nearby.
Along the Russian River at Del Rio Woods park
We saw a few birds along the river, too, though we heard many more than we saw. It was a lovely afternoon along the water.
We had dinner at Baci, and Italian restaurant in Healdsburg, sharing a generous salad, orechiette with broccolini, and saltimbocca. It was all delicious. Making a reservation was a good idea on a Thursday evening in the summer.
The next morning, we decided to stop and taste some wine on the way home. There are a lot of vineyards in this area, and many of them offer tastings, especially at this time of year when tourists begin to venture north. We stopped at the Graziano Winery Tasting Room in Hopland, CA, to chat with John, who is usually there and is always full of good humor. We picked up the wine we were due from our wine club membership, and added a few others (They have a new white, Greco di Tufo.). Then we went on to try a new place a bit further north, Nelson Family Vineyards, on the outskirts of Ukiah. We tasted and bought a bottle of viognier, petite sirah, and the sparkling rose. We won’t join the wine club, as we have joined two so far, and that’s enough. We spat most of our wine in the cups and buckets used for the purpose, which makes it possible to drive home afterward.
We arrived home in time for a late lunch around 3 pm, having made the most of my visit to the doctor.
Hotel: Best Western Inn Dry Creek, Healdsburg, CA
Dinner: Baci, Healdsburg, CA (we made a reservation)
Breakfast: Quail & Condor, Healdsburg, CA (best croissants this side of Paris)
It was quite a week. On Tuesday, we checked in to the Sheraton Commander Hotel in Cambridge, MA so that we would be walking distance from events, and for the next four days, we dove into my 50th Harvard Reunion.
It seems impossible that so many years have gone by since I graduated, and even longer since I arrived freshman year to take on the role of Harvard student. I’d always been a studious smart kid, and getting into Harvard was the culmination of my young life, when all I knew was that good kids went to college. I graduated with my class (1973), even though I took a term off, and stayed an extra semester at the end of my four years.
Reunions are a combination of convention, retirement party, and seminar. Even before the reception the first evening, we met old friends and began to connect with the group I know best. I found friends from Comstock (my freshman dorm) and Adams House (my upperclass dorm), and sure enough, everyone was recognizable, though name tags helped.
Women who lived in Comstock Hall my freshman year, fall of 1969. (L-R): Vivian Lewis, Sharon Shurts Tisher, Sophia Lee, Louise Reid Ritchie, Sandra Matthews. Far right photo top row (L-R): Christine Pittel, Leslie Tolbert, Winifred Creamer, Linda Jackson Sowell. Bottom row (L-R): Ann Fay Mick, Amanda Cross, Joyce Heard, Cyndi Mitchell.
After conviviality and dinner, we moved to the adjacent theater for the evening’s program, a documentary on the WPA project to record accounts by survivors of slavery. Created by classmate Donna Brown Guillaume for HBO, the show was moving and impressive. It didn’t need to take a side, it quoted directly from the narratives of former slaves as they described how hard they worked, how little free time they had, and how deep the cruelty of slave-owners could be, separating families, couples, siblings, friends. From there we went home to get some rest.
Annenberg Hall was a drafty, mournful cavern called Memorial Hall when we were undergrads. Now it is a Hogwarts-style dining room, a nice place for breakfast (Harvard Alumni Association)
Breakfast was each day’s first opportunity to find more long lost classmates. I have attended reunions of my class every five years or so, and find that as the years go by, people are increasingly friendly, and it becomes a pleasure to talk with anyone with whom I can find a common thread, whether I knew them in days past or not. One person I chatted with was in a production of Die Fledermaus our freshman year that remains the best English translation I’ve ever heard. I wasn’t in it, but I did attend several performances to see a friend in the chorus, and because there was a talented and handsome senior in one of the roles. I still remember it fondly.
The program began with the class survey. A general questionnaire is produced every five years. The results are always interesting–as a group, we are much more contented today than we might have once thought we’d be. A panel discussion on aging did not yield a new magic bullet to deter our gradual disintegration. Next up was lunch and more conversation. I enjoyed finding people I remembered and catching up on their families, the exotic locations in which they live or have lived, and their interests (travel, music, family, travel, and travel).
A memorial service was held in the early afternoon. Though not a churchgoer, I enjoy the memorial as a moment to think about the people who have not made it this far in life. Time takes its toll. I know the stories of only a very few: AIDS, murder, brain aneurysm, and have read about others in the compilation of personal accounts called the Red Book that comes out every five years for each class. The readings and music of the service were comforting as well as an opportunity to appreciate the vocal and instrumental ability of class members who volunteered their talents.
I don’t have a copy of our recent class photo. This is from our 40th, or 45th, or 35th………
Following the memorial service, we met for a class photo in front of Widener Library, the building that dominates Harvard Yard. Afterward, I gathered the members of my freshman dorm for a photo. From there, I scurried to the next event called “Me in Three”, when classmates were invited to spend 3 minutes talking about whatever they wanted to. As a member of the organizing committee interested in alternative programming, I was recruited to be one of the speakers, and I practiced my bit to fit in the time constraints. My talk was, “An Indelible Memory”, about move-in day of freshman year. It is attached at the end of this post.
I had to skip the end of the session to prepare for our next event, a dinner of former Crimson staffers, called Crimeds. I was a photographer for the Crimson (campus newspaper), even though not everyone could remember me. At the Crimson I learned how to roll bulk film onto a cassette for a 35 mm camera, how to develop and print black and white photos, how to dodge and how to burn. It was an important moment for me, both building a skill, and belonging to a group, (I failed in my initial effort to be accepted as a writer, and was very pleased to make the photo board). The Crimson Photo Board was essential but very much behind the scenes. I was often around as pages and pages of text were proof-read, laid out, and pasted up for printing, and I was there when the basement press was retired.
Crimeds at Class of 1973 Harvard Reunion (Harvard Crimson)
The dinner was excellent, and the company sublime. So many people from the Crimson had careers as writers, people whose bylines you’ve read in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Dallas Morning News; in addition to reporters and writers, there were politicians, ambassadors, entrepreneurs. The requisite documentary photo was taken, and we were all released back into our particular habitats, talked out for the day.
The benefit of the Sheraton Commander during reunion week is location, location, etc. It is easy walking distance to Harvard’s Science Center, ground zero for all things reunion, and made it possible to rush home and drop into bed, while still being able to arise for another day of earnest conversation.
So much to talk about, so little time. Thursday began with symposium on American democracy that didn’t have much new to say, but allowed people to express their concerns. This was followed by a symposium on the current state of the arts as a force for change, a session that I found gratifying. There are theater groups trying to become more inclusive, and museums trying to find new audiences. A different group discussed the cleanup of the Charles River and looked for threads of optimism in the area of the environment.
Another break for lunch and conversation, followed by a visit to what remains of Radcliffe, which is very little. The Radcliffe Yard was the administrative and classroom center when the two schools were separate, when I was a freshman. Today, Radcliffe consists of a post-graduate center, the Radcliffe Institute (recently renamed the Harvard-Radcliffe Institute), and a library of women’s history, though with the latest name change, Harvard seems about to execute the coup de grace and erase Radcliffe entirely. My visit to the Radcliffe Yard evoked pleasant memories, but by the afternoon (It was day three) I had to return to the hotel for some rest before the evening’s events. The weather was glorious, with higher temperatures each successive day, which put us in the 80s on Thursday.
There was a wine tasting, hot and crowded (the wine was good) and then a lengthy bus ride to travel a short distance (one way streets!) to the Radcliffe Quad for our dinner dance. A large tent and tables provided lots of space, and entertainment began with the Kuumba Singers, went to the Reunion Chorus, and ended with Sundance, the rock band of classmates that has entertained at every reunion I’ve attended.
Clockwise from upper L: Ron & Bob, Hurlbut freshmen, Sandy & Mara, Marc, me, Elizabeth, Ira, Ann, Ray, Michele, & Ron, Jonathan & Jeff
The evening was summery, allowing us to float around in our dresses and leave coats hanging on chairs. Even with all this chatting and sitting around, I still missed the chance to visit with some of the people I’ve known the longest. Perhaps I can pick up via email with those I missed, or with some of those who were unable to get to Cambridge on these particular days, though I am not sanguine about seeing Larry-who-moved-to-Australia any time soon (but I’ll read his latest book).
By Friday, the final morning of the reunion, many friends had already departed for home, vacation, or on their way to other places. I still managed to meet a few old friends and make a new one. The final symposium was one of the best, focusing on efforts at Harvard and elsewhere at racial reconciliation. Each speaker had a different perspective, a black woman who has headed a largely white prep school (Rebecca Sykes), a white man who led Harvard’s defense of affirmative action in admissions before the Supreme Court (Seth Waxman), a young Harvard chaplain, a member of the Harvard Remembrance Project, and another classmate as moderator (Sylvester Monroe).
We had to leave before the end of the session to get to our scheduled visit to the Harvard Art Museums. There was an opportunity to see a series of prints by Edvard Munch. Though he’s best known for The Scream, Munch was something of a mad printmaker, often changing prints as they were about to go to press. Parents of classmate Phil Strauss collected many versions of some of Munch’s prints and eventually donated them to Harvard. The staff were informative and welcoming, and pointed out characteristics of different time periods in the various works. I include two images that show the broad range of work that Munch produced:
The final day had many events, as the end of our 50th reunion overlapped with the new Alumni Day begun two years ago when reunions were moved away from graduation weekend. From the Art Museums, I went into Harvard Yard and heard Larry Bacow give his final remarks as president of the university. I haven’t been much of a fan of Bacow as president, not just because I was looking forward to being at graduation for our reunion (Tom Hanks spoke). Others have pointed out that Bacow was not a Harvarad undergrad and will never understand why the 50th reunion (and possibly others) want to be at graduation. I’m also disgruntled at how Harvard has handled the allegations of improper behavior among Anthropology professors. We’ll see how the new president does. Claudine Gay starts her term as president of Harvard on July first.
Mary Louise Kelly (Harvard Alumni Association)Larry Bacow (Harvard Alumni Association)
After the platitudes, there was some good music, but the invited speaker, NPR reporter and host Mary Louise Kelly, didn’t get to speak until almost 1 pm. That was when lunch began all over Harvard Yard and in the adjacent buildings. Thus, the most interesting part of the program began as people started to drift toward the food trucks invitingly parked nearby. I heard a bit of her talk, though I had agreed to meet Jonathan at 1 pm and could only push the time a few minutes.
We left Cambridge after lunch and headed back to Boston for our final day and a half. I was exhausted from all the visiting and walking back and forth, but happily so, and an afternoon nap fixed me up. I am glad that I went to the reunion. It was wonderful to meet up with old friends. I stand by my assertion that people grow kinder and friendlier as they grow older. If you have a notable reunion coming up, high school or college, I highly recommend attending and talking to absolutely everyone.
Llywindatravels 2025 