Year's end; new beginnings

So, it's the end of the year and we've been in Mt. Vernon for nearly a month. Here's what we've accomplished:

- We'll be moving into our own house (directly across the street from where we've been staying!) on Saturday, Jan. 2nd. We're renting but the landlady is thinking of selling it soon, and it's in our price range, so we may be homeowners in a few months.

- I found a lovely Howard 4' 6" baby grand piano for sale, rebuilt by a friend of a friend, that is a bit quirky but has a lot of warmth and character to its sound. Also, it's a lovely instrument. I'll post some photos when we get it moved in.

- We've been to sessions every Sunday and Monday night since we got here, except once when the weather was bad. The 3 other Irish musicians in Mt. Vernon are very serious and are really pushing us to remember all the tunes we know and to learn new ones. The Bellingham session is pretty average but the Everett session has a number of dedicated players and we're enjoying meeting the wider circle of musicians.

- Of all things, we managed to move to a place that has a truly stupendous assortment of...thrift stores. Since we got rid of so many things before we left California we knew that we would have to restock and refurnish, and we'll be able to get everything we need for a LOT less than we planned on.

- The Skagit Valley Food Co-op (do click on the link, it's an amazing place) is within walking distance of our house, and so is the YMCA, downtown, the farmer's market (in season) and the post office.

We are so very, very fortunate in so many ways. 2009 was our dream come true and the adventure of a lifetime and we came through it safely and happily. It seems like we can't and shouldn't ask for anything more than that, and yet here it is; the path opening up before us to make a new life in a new place. May 2010 be kind to you as well.

Happy New Year!!!

Larrabee State Park

Christmas Day: frost in the garden

End of the line

Well, we're here. Here, in this case, being Mt. Vernon, WA, population 30,000 or so, annual rainfall about 30 inches. All the way up I-5 we were wondering how well we would cope with the misty grey winter of the Northwest...but when we got here, it was bright, sunny, and COLD (high of 32 and low of 15, today). Ah well, we'll get around to the rain sooner or later.

We stayed around on Tuesday the 1st for two reasons: dinner at Pizzetta 211 with our friend Steve Baughman, and a last chance to go to the session at the Plough and Stars, which was a lovely way to round out our stay in the Bay Area. That night, we stayed at a friend's place in Tiburon, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and in the morning we headed north...marveling at how chilly it was...little did we know what we were in for. We had a lovely day for driving and were actually able to see all of Mt. Shasta for the first time in a few years. In fact, it would have been a perfect day to drive a U-haul with all of our stuff in it, if we had chosen to do that. I'm not yet certain that we made the right decision about the stuff but we are still convinced that moving once (i.e., when we get a house) is better than moving twice (into another storage unit and then into a house). After we got over the Siskiyous, near sunset, a thick fog came up and turned the highway into a mysterious place of floating lights and half-visible vehicles. To cope with this, we stopped at A&W for some fried cheese curds - we generally don't do fast food but those things are addictive. We made it to Cottage Grove a few minutes before our friends Kelle and Kev got home from work and, after a brief introduction to the wonders of their pellet stoves, headed out to the Axe and Fiddle for dinner and pints. Kelle and Kev's job is moving to Las Vegas without them this week and they, like us, are looking for ways to do what they love (art, in this case) and get paid for it. Kelle's art website is here - it's worth looking at.

Thursday, after meeting the chickens and seeing the new greenhouse, we set off for Portland. Again, it was a lovely day and Mt. Hood was clearly visible - very exciting for me, since I've never actually seen it due to clouds. We stopped in Newberg at the Newberg Music Center to see our friend G.D., the owner, and spent a pleasant hour or so discussing music with him. Got to Portland in mid-afternoon, got most of our stuff into Anton and Katie's house, made a quick stop at Powell's, and set off for a session via dinner at a little taqueria called Cha-Cha-Cha. During the session (held, believe it or not, at a place called It's A Beautiful Pizza), the football teams of two rival Oregon universities were duking it out and our lovely music was frequently interrupted with cheering and clapping that, sadly, had nothing to do with us.

Friday was our day off from driving and we mostly took it easy. Anton and William worked on some duo guitar pieces (p.s., Anton's about to release his first CD, it's really good), William and I went to lunch at our favorite Ethiopian place, Mudai, and the three of us ventured out to Next Adventure to check out their 'bargain basement' of used outdoor gear. I think we're going to go back there sometime in the spring and stock up on backpacking equipment. That night, we ventured out to dinner at Tsunami Thai (have I mentioned it's been pretty darn cold?) and decided to go back to the house before going to yet another session. We almost didn't go back out but we decided to forge ahead and ended up at the Alberta Street Pub for a really rockin' session...got home about 1, I think...

Saturday was THE LAST DAY OF THE ROAD TRIP. We went out early to hear Anton's friend Eric Skye play at Haven Coffee - the music was fabulous and the eggnog latte reminded me that there are actually good things about winter. We got everything back in the car and made plans to meet up soon, since we're so close to Portland now! Lunch happened at the Fishbowl in Olympia, WA and we got the added bonus of being able to meet up with not one but two people we know in the area at the same time. And then we drove north, past still more mountains (we could see St. Helens, Rainier, and Baker) and rivers and gigantic evergreens. Dinner at the Skagit River Brewery rounded things off very nicely...especially since we're really going to have to cut back on eating out for a while...!

We're staying at a friend's house in Mt. Vernon, doing lots of cooking and networking and emailing and figuring out what to do next. There are great sessions here; we already know most of the Irish musicians in the area because of Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp and it's wonderful to see everyone again. It's also nice to be making plans to stay in one place instead of getting ready to take off again in a few days, but at the same time it's hard not to wonder what the next adventure will be.

Niles Canyon Railyard

My friend Michael Duffy took me over to the Niles Canyon railyard in the East Bay a few weeks ago. The place is full of old train cars and engines in various states of decay, with a few volunteers around working on bits and pieces here and there. It was a great place to take photos...

Back "home"

(started Saturday 11/28)

We've been back in the Bay Area for nearly 3 1/2 weeks now, minus a quick side trip to Willits (more on that later). We stayed in San Francisco for a couple of nights and in Cupertino for almost 2 weeks, and right now we're house- and cat-sitting for friends in San Carlos who are on vacation. WE HAVE THE HOUSE TO OURSELVES...it's so weird. We visited our friends who own Wild Hog Winery and our friends who make really good coffee. We went to two of the restaurants we used to go to several times a week - Kokila's Kitchen and Freedom Burrito - and they remembered us!

Unlike the rest of the trip, both of us know where we're going and how to get there when we get in the car. We don't have to look up vegetarian restaurants online or ask the people we're staying with if there's anything good in the area. We can walk into sessions easily, without wondering what the level of musicianship is or if anyone will talk to us. Most importantly, we have bunches and bunches of friends to see, to the point where today (Saturday) actually feels like a weekend because we only have plans for dinner instead of for most of the day. Our time here has been a blur of lunches, dinners, and coffees. We've retrieved guitars that were left with various people, listened to a couple of my former piano and fiddle students play, and visited the guitar class that William used to go to. A friend organized a small session for us in San Francisco, other friends hosted and joined us for William's birthday dinners (3 of them!), and another friend invited us over for Thanksgiving with just her and her daughter. We even spent a Friday night playing Rock Band - you only find out who your real friends are after you've belted out Queen and Talking Heads songs at them.

So...now what?

(continued on Monday evening, 11/30)

Today we spent hours in our storage unit, looking through boxes for books and clothes and whatnot that we wanted to ship or take with us. We mailed 4 boxes to General Delivery in Mt. Vernon and hopefully we will pick them up next Monday. We got two folding bicycles into the car - William's Brompton and my Dahon - as well as a suitcase and an extra guitar and some flutes. We are relatively optimistic that we made the correct decisions because we don't plan to come back here to get everything else until spring at the earliest...

Last night we went to the Irish music session at O'Flaherty's and got to see a few musicians that we hadn't seen yet. (Today I found out that all the famous people were at the Plough and Stars in San Francisco last night - sigh). We had Irish coffees and exchanged the usual sort of barbed banter that passes for humor among Irish musicians. There were compliments given and suggestions made and it almost felt like we had never left at all. But, on Wednesday, we will cram everything back in the car and head north, stopping for a night or two in Eugene and in Portland, OR and arriving in Mt. Vernon on Saturday.

I plan to keep this blog going - it is, after all, attached to our band website - and will be chronicling our search for normal things like a house, jobs, and really good coffee as well as anything musical that we get up to in the future. We do have another blog that should be maintained fairly regularly from now on; it's at http://wgdmcu.blogspot.com/ and is all about food and gardening. I have a post up there about the gardening workshop in Willits, with more on that to follow soon, and there's also a post about my recent adventure harvesting honey in our friend Charlotte's backyard in Cupertino.

If you've been reading along during our journey, please consider commenting on this post or sending us an email at castlerockmusic@gmail.com - we would love to hear from you!

Death Valley (part 2)

Sunset and moonrise at Furnace Creek.

Natural Bridge Canyon.

Golden Canyon.

Mosaic Canyon.

Death Valley (part 1)

Artist's Palette, near sunset.

Twenty Mule Team Canyon.

Zabriskie Point.

Badwater.

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua trees next to our campsite at sunset.

Yucca.

Joshua tree trunks.

Near Skull Rock.

Of trees, rocks, and canyons

On Thursday, October 29, we returned to California after 4 months and 18 days of traveling through 34 other states and one Canadian province. It felt like the trip was over - we could no longer rely on our license plates to show other drivers that we weren't from around here, for one thing. At the California border, everyone has to stop to answer a few questions and show that they aren't importing dangerous fruit, and we had a difficult time answering the perfectly normal question, "Where did you come from?". Of course the trip isn't over; for one thing, all of our stuff is still in storage and we have no idea how long it's going to stay there. And, we don't have a house of our own yet. But returning to California was definitely a turning point.

We got to Joshua Tree National Park - after driving through Wonder Valley - around 3 or so and got everything set up, including the spiffy new queen-sized air mattress that fit perfectly in our tent. While we were setting up, the people next to us arrived and excitedly asked, "Are you here for the Phish concert?" Being the news-avoiding types that we are, we had absolutely no idea that this was happening and we were afraid that the campground would be completely full that night, but it wasn't too crowded and people were generally quiet. It was a little colder than we had expected that night - probably high 30s - but we were much warmer and more comfortable than at the Grand Canyon.

On Friday, William was still feeling a bit under the weather but we both wanted to go hiking, so we started out on the High View trail (the closest one to the campground). Joshua Tree is unusual among the parks we visited in that it's fairly close to civilization, especially at the west end of the park where we were. So, we went up, appreciating the mountains and desert around us, and arrived at the top to see a panoramic view of...the nearby towns and a nice layer of smog in the air. However, it was still worth the walk. That afternoon, after a fabulous lunch at The Natural Sister's Cafe, we went over to the visitor's center and then down to the Skull Rock trail, which has boulders as well as desert plants and looks like it should be in a completely different park. That was an excellent hike, although the discovery that the actual Skull Rock is right next to the road and we could have simply driven right up to it like everyone else did put a mild damper on things. We drove back to the campground the long way (which still only took us through about 5 % of the park) and stopped in Twentynine Palms for some firewood for the evening. That night there were many more people in the campground and we agreed that it was time to use our earplugs so we could actually get some sleep, which proved to be a very wise decision. When Phish started up - mind you, they were playing in Indio, about 20 miles away - we could hear every note and consequently didn't feel like we missed out on the concert at all...

Saturday, we got up early and got packed up and ready to leave fairly quickly. We gave in to the temptation of breakfast at Natural Sister's again, probably because they had vegetarian biscuits and gravy which is one of William's favorites. Our route to Death Valley took us back out through Wonder Valley and through the Mojave National Preserve (I just learned that we narrowly missed the town of Zzyzx) which is now yet another destination for a future trip. We got into Death Valley at around 2 or so but it was another 30 minutes before we got to Furnace Creek and our campground. We checked in...and found that the campsite we had reserved (based entirely on the map with no pictures or descriptions) was a narrow strip of gravel in full sun between two enormous RVs. So, we went back to the ranger at the entrance station and managed to negotiate a site in the walk-in area. We had our very own tree which more than made up for having to carry all of our stuff back and forth from the car, and we set up the tent directly underneath it so we had shade nearly all day. November in Death Valley means that the daytime temperatures only go up to 90 - so yes, it could have been worse, but we were pretty happy with our location. We went over to the visitor's center and the Furnace Creek Ranch, and decided to go over to Artist's Drive since we only had a couple hours before sunset. And, that night, we walked around looking at all the Halloween lights and decorations hanging on the RVs and then read for a while before going to bed - because, finally, it was warm!

Sunday, inevitably, I woke up feeling awful. William was still not at 100% either so we stumbled through making our oatmeal and coffee and tried to figure out what we were going to do. We settled on doing things that required more driving than walking and went over to Twenty Mule Team Canyon and Zabriskie Point in the morning. Of course, since we had our cameras, we ended up doing quite a bit of walking but I think that not doing an actual hike was a good idea. We had lunch and a bit of a nap at the campground, and then went down to Badwater in the afternoon. After that, we wandered around Furnace Creek for a bit, and, after using the free wi-fi to sneak in a bit of Internet, we noticed the booths set up for the Death Valley '49ers. Apparently, every year a large group of (mostly) elderly folks show up in early November to commemorate the pioneer spirit of the Americans who first traveled through Death Valley and gave it its name. And the best way to honor these brave adventurers is...to hang out in your RV when you are not attending the horseshoe tournament or the costumed pet parade. I don't understand people.

We both felt a bit better on Monday, and to celebrate we set off at the unprecedented hour of 8 am to check out Natural Bridge Canyon and Golden Canyon. We got slightly confused at the end of Golden Canyon and ended up not taking the correct fork, thereby missing the final rock formation, but it was still an interesting hike. Lunch was a picnic at Stovepipe Wells: we had a table by the general store all to ourselves except for the ravens who sat on the fence and glared at us the whole time we were eating. Then, we spent an hour or so in Mosaic Canyon, which was the most interesting and least populated hike we did and provided us with the information that the dominant type of rock there is Noonday dolomite - isn't that a great term? After the hike we went back to Stovepipe Wells and spent $4.00 each for our first shower in 4 days. Expensive...but unlimited hot water under those circumstances is priceless. That night, we tried the 49er Cafe at Furnace Creek Ranch - it was also expensive, but good. They had vegetarian options, beer from the Indian Wells Brewery, and date milkshakes for dessert; after several nights of basic propane-stove cooking, it was a feast.

Tuesday morning (Nov. 3rd), we packed up and prepared to return to civilization and the familiar territory of the Bay Area. Long-buried thoughts involving things like résumés and moving vans were starting to float through our heads...

The very kind people who have let us stay with them, part 3

John Priestley (and his lovely wife Mary Lee), Richmond, VA.

Richard and Sheila Winett, and Jeter, Blacksburg, VA.

Fiona Solkowski and Doug Becker, Indianapolis, IN.

Samir Mehta, University City (St. Louis), MO.

Pat Japenga and Sam Broyles, and the Dude, Jamestown, CO.

Nicolas Prade, Michael Duffy, Miriam Kaplan, and Michael Jones, who shared the condo with us in Pagosa Springs, CO.

Brad, Jen, and Rhiannon Boute, Mesa, AZ.

Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden

Organ pipe cactus

Old man cactus.

This one reminds me of a kaleidoscope

Teddy bear cholla.

Cacti usually bloom in spring, this was a nice surprise.

Aloe dorotheae, from Tanzania.

Lithops, also called living stones.

Palo verde: the trunk contains chlorophyll.

Close-up of the Boojum tree.