On The Road Again

7AM, up and at 'em

We detour off Route 15 to bike into Provo Canyon (Provo home of Utah Valley University) which offers vertical granite walls and one spectacular waterfall. Our bike trail meanders alongside a brook filled with trout which can be seen from the trail.

Our attractive and young morning waitress (Eitan has buckwheat pancakes with blueberry syrup which brings to mind the marvelously racist “Sambo’s” chain which once served five syrup flavors before the restaurant hidden away forever) tells us the Big Rodeo, which the locals are gunning for,  is in Las Vegas. She notes that the cattle roping, which took 5+ seconds last night (front and hind quarters on a fast moving animal), is done in 2.3 seconds in Vegas. She grew up in Fairview, and did one year of university at Utah Valley. 

Madeleine: “If you were going to name me something other than Madeleine, Ava or Hannah, what would it be?” [Dad’s note: Madeleine named after Madeleine Vionnet]

Me: “I like Abby or Ada. We do have an ancient European Jewish last name afterall."

Madeleine: “Yeah.”

Me: “I noticed you now introduce yourself as ‘Maddy’. Is this what you are going by  these days?"

Madeleine: “Only outside our family.”

Me: “Maddy Orenstein. I like it.”

Idaho Falls

The falls of Idaho Falls

Idaho Falls is located on the snake river, which we have followed since the Tetons, and there are, indeed, falls in the (now) historic old village where we have dinner (Madeleine wants sushi, we go for Mexican family).  

Idaho Falls the kind of town that has an ancient water tower, drive-in movie theatre and Viet Nam/ Korean war memorial.  There are a lot of franchises outlets on the main strip, which runs for miles.  The first toll bridge in America in Idaho Falls which opened in 1877, replacing  the ferry boat which shuffled people nine miles along the river from 1868.

Here are some of the roadside icons we have passed (and counting) and familiar to every American driver - what I love is that many of these brands are a holdover from the 1950s. 

Restaurants: A&W, Arby’s, Subway, TacoTime, Taco Bell, Sizzler, Outback Steakhouse, iHop, Starbucks, 7-11, Chilli’s, Panda Express, McD, Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, Denny’s, Carl’s Jr

Gas: Sonoco, Phillips 76, Chevron, Sinclair (the dinosaur), Exxon

Hotels: Comfort Inn, Motel 6, Holiday Inn, Best Westin, Day’s Inn, LaQuinta Suites

Stores: Target, Staples, Walmart,  UHAUL, The Home Depot

Wyoming

Eitan in Jackson Hole

Madeleine: “Can I have a Twizzler?” [Dad’s note: Twizzlers are a twisted gummy candy found only in America as far as I know]

Eitan: “What’s your favourite candy?”

Me: “I’m old school – I like the Marathon Bar, Reggie (briefly popular in ’77 when Reggie Jackson homered 3 times in one game for the Yankees in the World Series) and maybe a Big Hunk.”

Madeleine: “What’s that?”

Me: “Nugget with nuts. How about you?”

Eitan: “Snickers. Malteses. I don't know."

Me: “That’s it? You spend your entire life thinking about these things and that’s all you can come up with?”

Eitan: “Kit Kat!”

Madeleine: “Laffy Taffy, Swedish Fish, Twizzlers.. .does beef jerky count ?”

Me:

Sonnet: "You can have a separate category for junk food. Packaged snacks.”

Me: “God bless America."

Madeleine: “Candy corn!”

Big Tits

Grand Tetons is "Big Tits" in French

We join Marshall and Veronique for dinner at their beautiful house in Jackson Hole, joined by Jacques and Micou who are visiting for the weekend and some golf, so a London reunion in the middle of the Wyoming. I warn Marshall that we are coming off the road and he should be prepared for grubbiness but we pull ourselves together for a presentable evening (Marshall: "Terrific kids").  Their property along the Snake River which we stroll, checking out the scene, drinking white wine.

The bikes are a lot of work. Our rack accommodates only three so one goes in the car's hull. The rack must be taken off before I can open the car's back door so every stop requires an assembly in precise order - clips, straps and all. We have it down to a precision. Dad (so far) does a remarkable job maintaining his patience.

Me: "Are you guys ready for a day of action?"

Madeleine: "Another day of boiling hot weather."

Eitan: "Family fun."

Sonnet: "Off we go."

Old Faithful

Old Faithful remarkable for many things other than the geyser. The surrounding compound facilitates millions of visitors who are there for three minutes of total action. Give or take. The parking lots, visitor center and accommodations hustle us tourists thru like a well greased bicycle wheel. “Enjoy your geyser”, the cheerful ranger tells us, “It is your park, afterall”.

Me: “What do you think of ‘Old Faithful’? “

Madeleine: “It was really cool and it had a lot of spouting water.”

Me: “What’s one thing you learned?”

Madeleine: "When boiling water tries to find its way out, thru the cracks and weak links in the rock, sometimes it gets blocked, and pressure builds. Later on, water bursts out.”

Me: “Perfect, I would not add a thing.”

Lower Yellowstone Falls

We catch Yellowstone at the sunset notable as Sonnet and us (me, kids) separate as I race off to find the best photo location leaving Sonnet unawares of where we are.

The Lower Falls are 308 feet high, or almost twice as high as Niagara. The volume of water is in no way comparable to Niagara as the width of the Yellowstone River before it goes over the lower falls is 70 feet (22 m), whereas Niagara is a half mile. That said, it is darn beautiful and we are blessed to be here.

An Elk

Eitan and Madeleine observe the park rule, 25-meters from the animals

You can observe a lot by just watching.
--Yogi Berra

Yellowstone Rainbow

Despite being filled with tourists - I see Japanese, Chinese, Indian, European (of course) and overhear many American accents - the Americans make up less than 50% of the park's visitors, I would guess - one can still hike a trail without seeing another human being, as we do along Garnett's Pass.

Yellowstone's two million acres the first national park in the world when created by an act of Congress in 1872 and signed into law by President Ulysses Grant. Smarter than your average bear.

I had forgotten how pleasurable/ miserable it is to come off a hiking trail, unshowered for several days, to hamburgers and beer when one's body craves veg.

Mammoth Hot Springs

A hill of travertine

We cross the northern Idaho panhandle then Montana and Wyoming to enter Yellowstone Park at the North entrance where we stay at the Mammoth Springs Lodge, right out of the 1950s, God bless.

We take an early morning ranger tour and learn that the hot springs created over 400,000 to 600,000 years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate (over two tons flow into Mammoth each day in a solution). We are on a volcano, afterall.

The kids for their part are hanging in there, shifting from back-seat bickering to bored exuberance (both get a holler from the front seat).  Much of their squabbling is over who has been more generous and so on and so forth so I get them to write it out: Madeleine has shared her french fries, a tee-shirt, a chocolate bar and the better side of the bed at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane. Eitan has given Madeleine some popcorn, a few chips and her choice of the car seat (we are in an American seven-seater). Overall, it is about even.

Post Seattle

Sonnet, Rana, Rob

So here is what the gang is doing: Rana, Assistant Managing Editor, Time Magazine and economics pundent, CNN; Mary, founder, Gatheredtable, backed by Starbucks Howard Schultz; Rob, founder and funding a Latin American bank; Sloan continues her exec coaching business.  A dynamic and interesting group for sure.

Madeleine: "Where do you want to go?" [Dad's note: we are on a bike trail outside Spokane]
Me: "You're a young woman now, you need to answer your own questions sometimes."
Madeleine: "I think you're jumping over a few stages there, Dad.  Like teen-ager."
Me:
Madeleine: "In fact, I'm still a pre teen."
Me: "You're a 'tweenie.'
Madeleine: "Definitely not a tweenie. OMG."

Me: "Can I have a sip of your drink?" 
Madeleine: "No."
Me: "Sharing is an attractive quality."
Madeleine: "Like last night when you wouldn't give me one bite of your burger yet ate all my chips?"
Me: "Touche."
Madeleine:
Me: "Nicely done in fact."

Beautiful Child

OMG DAD

So there is the usual split between the kids : teenagers (Devon, Sophie, Eitan) the tweenies (Madeleine, Jaimes, Simon, Darya) and Maya who is really, like, the oldest kid in the group yet the youngest by age. And so it goes.

The teenagers are practicing adolescents and we keep an eye on the on-goings : lights that are off are turned on, sleeping arrangements monitored and babysitters advised. Usual stuff.

And Rob says, "Jeff, we have beer."

Moonrise Over Washington

Mt Rainier from Mary and Amado's dock

We cope with jet lag which means waking up at 3:45AM (me) and trying to go back to sleep. Instead I watch the sunrise and otherwise adjust to the emotional swings of long haul travel which is only normal in, like, the last 30 years of world history.

Madeleine wanders into the kitchen, says hello, and takes my unfilled spot next to Sonnet.

Go Pro

Skier

Devon is into skiing. He is a skier. Last year he won the Buddy Warner Pacific Northwest Championships for 12-13 year-olds  on Crystal Mountain - there were over 100 competitors.  He qualified for the Jr Olympics this year but crashed out (Nb, Devon's worst crash occurred when he was free skiing and came over blind noll into an inadequate grooming job and flew 40 feet into the trees, hitting tree branches but, fortunately, no trunks, and walked away, more or less. The ski patrol thought he was dead, he tells me).

Devon's long-term ambition is to make the national ski team and ski competitively in college.

Me: "Maybe I will stop my blog."
Rob: "Why? It's your journal."
Me: "It's mainly about the kids, and I can no longer write everything that is going on."
Eitan: "What can't you write?"
Me: "Stuff that will embarrass you."
Eitan: "There's nothing that would embarrass me, Dad."
Me: "Puberty."
Sophie: "Ag, don't say that."
Eitan: "OK, OK."

Eitan And Maya

The Gang Together

Back together again

We arrive in Seattle and re union with Rob and Sloan and Rana and Amado and Mary who host everybody in their beautiful big house on Mercer Island overlooking Lake Washington and snow-covered Mt Rainier.

The kids pick up where they left off - no awkwardness, no hesitation. They are best friends but older (and fun to observe, silently).

Eitan at the Seattle airport: "It smells like America."

Off To Discover America

Terminal 5

Motohead

Any day in Paris

Madeleine's school breaks for summer or five days later than Eitan (Madeleine helpfully points out: "It's OK, we're not learning anything anyway.")  She has a crew of friends to 45 to watch TV, jump on the neighbours' trampoline and pizza for dinner.  Eitan meets his friends in Richmond where one may find a Sony Playstation, grass lawn, trampoline and other such things that make a house worthwhile ( ours is not).

Madeleine: "What's 'bail?' " [Dad's note: We watch "Law And Order."]

Me: "It's money held by the court. If you flee, the court tries to catch you."
Madeleine: "What if they find you?"
Me: "You go to jail and they keep the money."
Madeleine: "What? They keep the money ?"
Me: "It's a pretty bad deal."
Madeleine: "I'll say."

A Day In The Life

At Emanuel

So for a catch up (as I watch the Federer-Djokovic Wimbledon final) : From Manhattan to Boston to meet the Harvard Mgmt Co and Eric (hamburgers, Four Seasons).  Eric and I discuss the usual stuff for this stage of life (Eric's punchline: the world owes you nothing).

Then Boston to London overnight to fight jet lag and work, Thursday, and Madeleine's evening performance with the junior brass ensemble  at Emanuel (she is terrific and hopes to pass the Grade 3 exam for music this summer)

On Friday, Sonnet and I to the Globe for Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus" which is a visual gorefest . Blood rips across the stage in a most shocking fashion : In one scene, the moor forces a nurse wife (who knows he is the father of the bastard Queen's son) on her fours then butchers her from behind, "like a pig". Several people excuse themselves from the audience.

From there, I meet Stratos The Greek to discuss his friend's clever rating app then dinner with Alexandra and Nedar, who is David's business partner and interested in fashion. We dine at Clarke's (me, pig).

And yesterday is Maya's bat mitzvah. Bravo !

New York Sunrise

Midtown from the Central Park reservoir

Like nowhere else I have been, a day in New York can change everything. And the early bird gets the worm.

I catch up with Ray who is now the Frank R. Lautenberg Professor of Ethics and Corporate Governance, the Bernstein Faculty Leader and the Faculty Director, Programs in Social Enterprise, at Columbia Business School.  Mostly, though, we talk about the KKH.

Texting
Me: What do u want to listen to in the car? [Dad's note: we are planning audio and video for the US roadtrip]
Madeleine: Don't know
Me: Your mom is lining up Shakespeare and other educational stuff
Madeleine: Oh God

6th and Waverly

Waverly Diner

Katie and I have dinner at Raoul's in SoHo and I am reminded of Christmas Eve, 1996, when Sonnet, Christian, Sarah and I dined here on a magical night when the city otherwise shutdown tight but for a few revellers, loners and outcasts.  

Afterwards I cut across Greenwich Village and visit some ancient haunts nearby my first Manhattan flat, 373 6th Ave, 1989-90.  I passed the Waverly every day on my way to the 6th Ave Subway to catch the No. 1 train to Midtown.

The area hasn't changed much, either, nor should it : busy, gay and in love with itself.

"Get up close and intimate with lions, leopards and elephants - while feeling totally safe and pampered."
--Elevator posting at the Four Seasons for the Four Seasons Safari Lodge

The Belly Of The Beast

Katie at the Four Seasons

I arrive in Manhattan yesterday, which always brings back a wave of euphoria - New York! - and anxiety (meetings! First Boston !). But it is a glorious summer Sunday evening and I meet Katie for drinks so it is all OK.

On our way to dinner we pass Fernando Botero's bronze, “Leda and the Swan" and Katie recalls the mythology where Zeus, disguised as a swan, rapes Leda (married to King Tyndareus ) who hatches, from two eggs, Helen of Troy and Polydeuces. Helen, of course, the most beautiful woman in the land and her abduction by Paris, and eventual marriage to Menelaos, leads to the Trojan War. It is a longer story of course and Katie knows it by heart.

"A shudder in the loins engenders there 

The broken wall, the burning roof and tower 

And Agamemnon dead."

--Leda and the Swan, W.B. Yeats

Party Down

"Hurricane" by Bridget  Mendler, final song

Madeleine brings down the house with a year-end party at No. 45.  55 boys and girls arrive more or less ensemble (the parents wish us good luck, tell us we are brave, then ditch - God bless.  Fortunately we have Oscar, Klara and several mums who help us with the cooking and over-seeing). They are high on sugar, music and themselves. What joy, to observe such youth.

Madeleine for her part does a wonderful job bouncing between different groups (boys, dorks, on the one side and the girls on the other) making sure everybody feels welcome and included. The kid is a natural, I tell you. 

Throwing a party for a bunch of Year 7s not without risk of failure or public humiliation.  Last night was fabulous and either way I could not be more proud of Madeleine.

"I'll just give it another wack and see if that does it."

On plane British Airways engineer shortly before departure to NYC.

Power Shot

Venus at work

Sonnet and I to Wimbledon and have the same wonderful seats as always : just on the lip of the cover so we get plenty of shade on a hot day, like today. We arrive on the grounds in time for a picnic and walk around a bit before Court 1, where we are treated by world class tennis from Venus, Maria and Stan Wawrinka, the current world #3 and recent winner of the Australia Open.  They really wack the ball, too.

The joy of Wimbledon - there are so many matches! It's like going to a double-feature at the movies, and who ever does that now ?

For all our love of McEroe or Borg or Connors : none of these guys would have made the tournament today.

Self Portrait XXXX

Trump Tower, Toronto

Sonnet: "Oscar had a good idea today. He suggests that museums ban children under 12." [Dad's note: Sonnet and Oscar visited the Tate Modern as part of Oscar's work study at the V&A]

Me: "Why not make it under 15? That should have you covered, Eitan."
Eitan:
Sonnet: "My parents used to hate children at museums. My Dad still does."
Eitan: "Maybe you could exclude children from the more sophisticated exhibitions?"
Me: "What's a sophisticated exhibition?"
Eitan: "Um, maybe shows that have Matisse and van Gogh."
Me:
Eitan: "Or maybe less sophisticated shows have sculptures."
Me: "That's an interesting one. Care to explore it further ?"
Eitan: "Not really."

Photo Booth

Spider vision

I visit Toronto for a 24 hour in-and-out. An annoyance: the T5 tram that connects the main terminal to the outer gates is a 30 second ride yet requires 20 minutes planning nor is their a walking option. But what irritates me is the time one waits from the trolly's arrival and passenger debarkment until we can enter the carriage which is painstakingly long. Some idiot did some risk analysis, overcompensated, and wastes a bazillion hours of our (my) time. This occupies my mind, esp. when running late (per usual).

Eitan competes the 1500 in today's Richmond Schools Championships (I arrive at Heathrow, 9AM, and head straight for the track in time to see him run). Eitan wins, with a time of 4:59, the same as last year when he set the meet record for Y7s.

Jumping Joy

Daisy and Madeleine burn off some energy

We spend the longest day of the year in Palewell Park at a going-away party for Alberto and Lucretia. Alberto with Diageo and returning to Spain (Madrid) from treasury to marketing. I meet the European MD of Philip Morris, the head of BAT and a couple of bankers or, as Alberto points out, a real bunch of riff raffs.

Last night we are with Jacques and Micou, a French couple, while Jacques has recently retired from private equity firm KKR.  We discuss France and agree : the prospects not good nor is there a Margaret Thatcher to make things right. And why would the best and the brightest go into govt? It's a good question right now.

Same Old Football

Eitan watches England v. Uruguay

England crash out of the World Cup, losing 1-2 to Uruguay, which, the announcers helpfully point out, is the smallest-population country to be in the finals. Joy.

There is something very English about the defeat : down 1-nil, Rooney equalises in the 2nd half getting our hopes up. Then the crushing inevitable.  Exactly the same with Italy the other night. So, four years of anticipation, a few moments of euphoria, and two stinging defeats. Enjoy your football.

Older cousin David and Donna join us for dinner on their way to Ireland.  They will visit many of the spots seen by us, Grace, Moe+Katie in '98. David continues his work at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, where his research changed how colon cancer is screened in America.

Me: "How old do you think I am?" [Dad's note: birthday]
Madeleine: "47."
Me: "Good guess."
Madeleine: "48?"
Me: "You got it right the first time. Does that seem old to you ? "
Madeleine: "Not really. I guess you have a few years."
Me: "Until I'm dead?"
Madeleine: "No! Until you're 50. That seems old."

Goldman's View

The City, from Goldman's offices

GS's HQ on Fleet Street is subtle and rich at the same time. Upon entering, one knows that one is surrounded by the world's very best competency when it comes to money.

As Dick Whittington and his cat knew in the 19th Century and Goldman Sachs knows today, "London's streets are paved with gold."

Me: "Are you kidding? Put that down. You're mom is making you a nice dinner." [Dad's note: dad finds Madeleine in the living room eating a scone 20 minutes before dinner]
Madeleine: "Yeah, right dad." [Dad's note: Madeleine points to dad's open large bag of lightly salted Doritos on the couch where dad is watching the news]
Me: "Mine is more like a lite snack."
Madeleine:
Me: "OK, eat the scone."

Thy Word

Madeleine, pre race

Me: "What are you guys going to do without your media toys during the family road show?" [Dad's note: we will drive across the USA in July]
Eitan: "We can watch movies. In the back of the car."
Sonnet: "I am going to bring a lot of audible tapes. The entire works of Shakespeare, for instance."
Madeleine: "What ?! I am not listenting to anything with 'thy' in it."
Me: "Thy hast no choice."
Madeleine: "No 'thy' and 'thou.' No way."
Me: "Thous shall obey thy mother's wishes."
Madeleine: "Whatever, Dad."

And They're Off

Starting gun (Madeleine is No 21)

Madeleine runs the 800m in the London Schools Track and Field Junior Championships having qualified several weeks ago and so I find myself at Mile End stadium in Tower Hamlets.  

My taxi driver, who drives me from Canary Wharf to the stadium, grew up in the neighbourhood but lives in Essex now - he can't afford London. His parents, however, still in the family house as his dad a bus driver who lives two minutes from the depot. They are also under pressure to move.

Since Tower Hamlets next to The City, and as the Olympics Village pulls the city's gravity Eastward, property prices and rents have gone skyward. Despite its urban and ethnic nitty gritty and working man local, property prices are on par with Richmond's leafy suburbs as young professionals arrive and gentrify. There is hardly a cockney accent to be heard.

Madeleine runs in a fast heat and unaccustomed to starting on the outside lane. She rockets forward but out of gas for the second lap. The 800m may be the most punishing race : lactic acid onset by lap one with one full-lap to go.

The Eagle Has Landed

Oscar "Crazy Bus"

Oscar joins our family for three weeks to do a work-study at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Oscar has recently finished his sophomore year of high school in San Francisco and last time he was with us in 2010 during the World Cup (England famously crashed out) and next year it's the dreaded SATs but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I have known Oscar since age-two when we met on a family vacation in Provence. Now he is a young man interested in geometry and the sciences, design and theatre.  Museums, too.

Yellow Dress

Friday Night, VA

The World Cup starts and England loses to Italy, bummer.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Times, in a wonderful expose, has shown FIFA to be a corrupt, unethical and self-serving governing body of world football. Still, prez Sepp Blatter will likely run for re election for another four years. What, me worry ?

I spend the day, Sunday, doing my US income taxes (ex pats receive an automatic extension which means one thing: procrastination).  My 1040 requires forms 2555, 6241 and 1116, each with its own pull-out worksheet (found in the 300 page IRS instruction booklet), to be filled out in precise sequential order. Oh, joy.

Mall Rats

Josey, Madeleine, Lizzy

I drive the girls to the Westfield mall for an agreed 3.5 hours (negotiated down from five hours) and must wonder: what do they do?  Me, I head straight for Starbucks to watch a couple of episodes of "Breaking Bad" in peace.

Madeleine has ten pounds and buys a pair of colourful socks.  The remainder is spent on two pieces of sushi for lunch. Good value entertainment.

I am invisible in the car and listen to the girls chit chat and giggle about school, boys, clothes .. usual stuff.