Joy!
Eitan (10AM): "Can I have a piece of cake?"
Madeleine sees Eitan: "Can I have a piece of cake too?"
London, England
Eitan (10AM): "Can I have a piece of cake?"
at 18:58
Sonnet sets the example for us all – here she is running 11 miles at altitude. While Sonnet sticks to her schedule, Katie and I hike the same trail with the kids which begins at Bear Valley and continues to Lake Alpine or about three miles out and the same back. It is a beautiful day in the mountains with blue skies and warm alpine temperatures. The exposed groves covered with alpine flowers. The kids happy to be unbathed and we oblige them: each covered with a layer of dirt (this against every grain in Sonnet's body). I reason that they swim at the rec center so the chlorine strips away the worst of it. Moe keeps busy with cabin chores while my mother adjusts to her new knee – she uses a walker and determined to get on with it. My parents are now grandparents and how I remember Dorothy and George.
at 18:53
at 23:14
at 22:22
Katie, despite her knee surgery last week, is trooper on our six mile hike of the South Grove. Here they are next to an old friend.
at 19:47
at 19:30
at 19:23
We have breakfast at the Claremont Hotel with Tim, who arrives yesterday in the Bay Area. Tim and Kitty have closed their life in Brooklyn to raise their two children, both under two, in California and around Kitty's friends (she is native to the state). Tim has taken a CFO role with venture-backed company Simbol which is in the renewables space. Simbol has proprietary technologies that strip precious minerals, in particular lithium, from the water produced in geothermal plants in Palm Springs. Tim is in his comfort zone having returned to the energy industry where he began his career at Enron.
at 21:25
Our jet lag fatigue expressed in various ways: me, stress. Sonnet, exhaustion. The kids: they get wiggy. Last night Christian over for dinner and beforehand we stroll to Cordornices Park to tire out the Shakespeares which, instead, makes them hyper. They finally crash out around 9PM (5AM GMT). Eitan gets up from the table, goes into the den and plonks down asleep. We soon follow.
at 22:24
at 22:25
Sonnet and the kids arrive Sunday afternoon and I greet them at SFO, having arrived the day before. I have to hustle across the Bay Bridge as Leon and Sunny's wedding this afternoon at Joaquin Miller Park overlooking the Bay. Here we are at the reception.
at 21:55
We unpack from Italy and prepare for the USA -- I leave tomorrow, followed by the kiddies on Sunday.
at 14:42
We go to the beach one last time before heading to Pescara and the airport.
at 20:04
Hotel Capitano is one block from the beach. Sonnet tells me -- and not surprisingly -- there has been a lot of development since she was here last. The beach front where we are mostly the same but behind us, towards the hills, there are new stucco condominiums in various colours; Roberto points out, horror, a grocery store. This is a small vacation town and not much more to it than that, really. An ancient railway separates the old town from the new and the train's whistle a nice reminder of the evening's hour. Yesterday we are treated to an afternoon cooling shower+rainbow then a beautiful sunset, pictured. We enjoy our last night at a small family pizzeria: Sonnet orders one with gorgonzola with radichio, another with potatoes with rosemary and a third with capers, tuna and tomatoe sauce - washed down with two large bottles of Moretti beer. I eat so much I am nearly sick. The kids stick to their salami pepperoni. Madeleine coos "the best pizza I ever had."
at 19:37
Over breakfast: what do you kids want be like when you are teenagers?
at 13:31
at 13:20
We watch a friendly crew across the day arguing, shouting and throwing down cards like nobody's business. Points are kept on a small white scratch pad. These dudes are serious. I like how the various ages find each other - the teens on one side of the lido; mums with their babies or toddlers on the beach under an umbrella or sunbathing. Old codgers .. pictured, having the most fun. Dads sit around sans shirt smoking cigarettes, yelling at the bambinis. Eitan makes a few friends on the sand football pitch .. nobody understands each other but, ah, the joy of sport. They genuinely like each other and I have to drag the boy away at sundown.
at 13:02
at 21:36
I sit at a round table blogging and watching Italian television. I recognise the show hosts, or at least their quality, having followed Silvio Berlusconi. Tonight the gals chirp away about Afghanistan and some wildlife. Roberto offers me a double-espresso even though it is after 11PM yet how can I resist? Ten years ago it would have been difficult to travel with work -- but now everything real time even at the beach or sitting, here, in the bar. Tortoreto closes early -- dinners may be late around 9 or 10PM -- followed by a stroll and then .. bed. The hotel staff walk around me preparing for tomorrow wiping tables, putting glasses in their place and smoking a fag or two outside, in the street. The visiting teenagers must be bored out of their minds but otherwise they are sure fun to watch at the lido. How cool that we will soon have a couple of them in our house. Such yuf! Such drama! Will we be prepared?
at 21:01