A few days out from the action, the house began to fill up with activists from around Southern California. Hazel was particularly interested helping the CodePINK women get their visuals in order and they gracefully obliged. I don’t have any photos of the demonstration itself, but some can be found at http://other98.com/.
In Palm Springs, we stayed in a vacation rental with several other activists and friends. The pool was a bit cold to swim in, though of course, Hazel, daredevil and lover of extreme experiences that she is, attempted it. After rejecting the pool, they both spent an extraordinary amount of time rescuing bugs from the pool and bringing them to their insect rehabilitation center, replete with exercise equipment, natural blow dryers and towels, and acrobatic training equipment. They also treated our friend Andrew to a spa treatment after he’d returned from a run.
We had a grapefruit tree that was loaded with the most delicious grapefruit I’d ever tasted, as well as a lemon tree in the back yard. When there weren’t grapefruit to pick or insects to be rescued, we did spend some time on some math workbooks and helping to plan the demonstration.
We left L.A. and headed out to Palm Springs, the location of the protest. On the way we stopped at another favorite L.A. eatery, Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. Definitely a cultural experience unlikely to be found anywhere outside of L.A. We also got a quick visit with my sister, Megan, who is in her first year at Scripps College in Claremont, CA. Hazel has been asking about what college is like for awhile, so Megan took us on a tour of her campus, and they got to see a dorm room which was oddly fascinating.
Another impressive part of the drive east to Palm Springs is the San Gorgonio wind farm–the largest in California. Hazel had fallen asleep by then, but I think Sam enjoyed seeing the rows and rows (and rows) of massive windmills.
After two nights in Santa Monica, we moved to a friend’s house near Venice Beach. These were my old stomping grounds when I went to grad school at UCLA, but I hadn’t been back since my graduation. We took Sam and Hazel to our favorite pizza place, spent lots of time on the beach (Sam was gleeful, playing in the waves, while Hazel spent her time collecting and displaying shells). We got to meet up with our friends Isaac and Logan, who in L.A. for the same reason we were: to protest the secret meeting of the billionaire Koch brothers–the main funders of climate science denial and the tea party who (in our view) have undue influence in our political system. More on that to come…
Our friend Jodie, who owns the house where we stayed, founded CodePINK: Women for Peace and has also traveled extensively, so her house is a veritable museum. Lots of fun stuff to look at. And play with, e.g., the harp.
We stayed with some old friends in Santa Monica for a few nights who are also unschooling. We lucked into the timing–they were hosting a homeschool coop while we were there. Several families hire 3 art and music teachers who play with the kids–some structured time, some not, and lots and lots of art materials and instruments. It looked like a great model.
We got to take some time to learn about the history of this Valley–the rush for gold and silver, the displacement of the Paiute people as white settlers moved into the area, the draining of Owens Lake to serve the ever-growing Los Angeles population, the subsequent creation of the tufa towers in Mono Lake which now serve as a nesting area for 85% of California’s gull population. We stopped by the Eastern California museum and saw eggs from all sorts of species, Paiute basketry, dentures made from coyote teeth (!), a native plant garden, and buildings and mining equipment from the area’s past.
Driving down through the Owens Valley is really spectacular. My husband and I did a 6-day backpacking trip in this area for our honeymoon. We haven’t been back to the area since. Snow prohibited us from driving too far into the mountains, but we did get to drive up from the desert about half an hour for some snow play. And some peaks into this rugged mountain range which includes Mount Whitney.
We *finally* pulled off the road, at Hazel’s insistence that we have a picnic, at a state park just south of Reno. So amazing to look up at these mountains, rising straight out of the desert. The imposing mountain to the west of us, aptly called Slide Mountain, has endured 9 catastrophic slides in discernible geological history. The picnic was a great break, complete with a shoot-out and the construction of a nature altar for the Ponderosa pines.
We left Vashon on Friday afternoon, stopped for a quick dinner and Portland before driving on to Medford, OR for the night. Books on CD, singing songs, and telling stories made the trip pretty easy. Next day, we headed east across the northern Sierras, driving in the shadow of Mount Shasta and Mount Lassen, until we got to the dry, east side. It’s the old west out here.
Hazel asked to have a night with no electricity. While John ran an errand in town, Hazel, Sam, and I raced to clean the house up. (I’ve never seen them so motivated to clean up). Once we got it looking remarkably immaculate, Hazel and Sam lit candles leading up the stairs. John arrived, and we were all cuddled upstairs in bed, reading by hurricane lantern. One of those magical moments. I’m hoping “no electricity night” becomes a regular occurrence around here.
