I didn't choose any pictures of the Airbnb home we stayed at. It was beautiful and comfortable and Scott did an excellent job finding it. There are just too many pictures of family I adore so the house pictures were left neglected, without any hearts in my favorites folder.
Here is SAVANNAH! Isn't she marvelous?
We spent our first day in Julian, CA wandering the town, mouths agape at all the charming shops and surrounding beauty. Pie was everywhere, which gave us a chuckle. While vacationing together in March, we discovered one of our neighbors was a pie lady. She sold pie from her home! What a job! This was serendipity because Scott's wife, Kristin, had just made it through a successful job interview after lots of hard work and we were in need of a proper dessert to celebrate that kind of thing. When we discovered Julian had a pie shop, we all had a little chuckle. What we didn't realize until that first day is that nearly every restaurant and shop had pie. I think at least five types of apple pie were sampled by my family on this trip, but a winner was never determined.
Naturally, climbing a tree (or in my case, being tossed into it) is the best thing to do after eating a large breakfast.
It was surprisingly hot in Julian so when a lady encouraged us to sign up for a gold mine tour, which included a walk through a cool mine, we couldn't resist.
Robert found a fleck of gold and Kristin and Autumn were sassed by what must have been the only unfriendly person in town. A good time for everyone.
The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo, which included a lot of interesting animals and an even more interesting bus ride with a colorful driver. I particularly enjoyed watching a sloth bear run around his enclosure, dancing and running with happiness.
Those weren't my favorite animals at the zoo though. My first favorite critter at the zoo was the Savannah, who began her zoo journey with some mushy strawberries from a spoon that was too large for her. She also participated in an art piece that involved a print of her painted hand. When she wasn't enjoying all the attention of some of her biggest fans and looking at everything with curiosity, contentment, and a contemplative wonder that rivaled my grandma's look of wonder, she was understandably tuckered out and nabbing a snooze.
The Autumn was my other favorite zoo critter. She raced around, looking at and commenting about everything, both real and imaginary. She climbed on everything, chose the picture called, "Savannah" for her face painting, and then promptly soaked herself at a splash pad. Her energy and happiness were infectious, and it gave me joy to experience the zoo through her eyes.
This also brought me joy, and still gives me a fit of the giggles whenever I see it. Scott, the person I look up to most, falling off a beetle.
Really, there are so many good pictures, it was tough to pick favorites. I think my brother's family can't take a bad picture. My favorite thing about looking at this trip's pictures like the one below was watching Savannah's legs kick and dance as I flipped through them. All her lovely rolls just kicking and swinging in joy.
We ended the zoo with a train ride, where Scott bought train whistles for both Autumn and Robert. Later in the trip, on our way to Tucson, Robert blew the whistle every time he saw a train. As a person who is comfortable with and even enjoys loud and obnoxious noises, I was ready for a break after five hours. Robert and his trains! I mean, look at that face! That's not just the face of someone enjoying a train ride. It's also the face of someone who's just been given the gift of a whistle that he knows will annoy his wife until she loses her hearing from it.
After the zoo we enjoyed a Spreckels Organ concert featuring Nicole Keller who included a few hymns in her chosen pieces. There aren't any pictures or really any words to describe this experience. This was my second time enjoying a Spreckels Organ concert, and I was just as enamored the second time. I can't wait to come back.
The next day we visited the San Diego Central Library, which was so incredible it was almost sickening. I think it has nine glorious floors of library happiness with a separate rare books building on its roof, and both a library bookstore and separate library gift shop on the first floor. It was really exciting. Think about the cereal aisle at your grocery store. Now imagine that instead of cereal, the entire aisle filled with children's books in many languages. This next picture captures only a portion of this section.
We didn't have much success reading these books, but we still found a way to have a good time with them.
What to do after such a wonderful library visit? The beach!!
Without a doubt, my favorite part of the trip was the beach. You know how the books we read urge us to have a moment to relive in case our bodies or even our minds are suffering? I've thought a lot about this since my back injury three years ago. I was in so much pain, trapped in my bed, unable to walk, and I remember looking at the blank walls Robert and I carefully kept blank to avoid distractions that could interrupt our sleep, and I felt such despair. I clung to my good memories during those tough days, and I'm thankful I bounced back in under a year with no surgery. But I've been working hard at really diving into the moment of good times, knowing that those memories may be a raft in future moments of pain, moments that may be even tougher (we also begrudgingly put up one of my collages on the wall 😆).
Going to the beach turned out to be one of the best days of my life. It's been a long time since I laughed like that, screamed with joy, and had that much fun. I also think it's the happiest I've ever seen Autumn, and Scott was the epitome of childlike joy.
Both Robert and Kristin joined us eventually, but Robert was very into the aircraft that was constantly flying over us (he would want me to list everything we saw, but this blog isn't called Robert's Favorite Trains and Planes so we'll move on).
And I think Kristin was having a great time with Savannah, who was safely out of the water's reach. Though we were all excited to see Savannah's reaction to the water, Savannah has a different story to tell.
We finished the day walking The Embarcadero, having dinner at The Brigantine (Best meal of the trip. See my "salad" below.), ice cream at Ben & Jerry's, and a ride on the carousel before succumbing to exhaustion.
The Ben & Jerry's cow (Woody, I believe) was very supportive of us eating ice cream (it probably had a lot to do with the fact that we were both eating dairy-free strawberry marshmallow, which Autumn happily shared with Woody).
We spent our last day hanging out in Julian. We were all eager to explore just a little bit more, though Savannah stayed back at the house with Kristin to help her catch up on some work.
We began the morning with an interesting and entertaining puppet show presented by Autumn at the delightful Julian Library. Yes, another library win!
Robert found another "train." This is the sign at the antique store I mentioned in the last post. It was arguably the best antique store I've been to. Piles of glorious junk and treasure everywhere. Old neon signs, toys from many moons ago, a salon hair dryer from the 60s or 70s, two different pairs of parrot earrings (one pair went home with me), bizarre nesting dolls, an entire shed devoted to miniature trains, beads, wigs, textiles, old quilts, buttons, and even a whole shelf of old Raggedy Ann Dolls. I could have spent a whole day there, or a day each week for the rest of my life.
There were piles of postcards everywhere. If you ever think you don't need to look at and read all the postcards, then check this out:
I really love marbles, but I already have two jars so I snapped a picture. Look at all of these marbles!
We drove around the neighboring towns, enjoying the scenery, another small library, and each other's company.
Scott and I did a little jump for our name, and Autumn even joined in. This may be the beginning of some future jump pictures with Autumn. Look at Scott go here!
Before we packed up, I spread my treasures out (including three scarves I found in a Julian shop and beads from a bead store with two golden retriever mascots), and I did some reflecting and journaling. We had so much fun in Julian, and I couldn't wait to have both my brothers and their families together.
We spent Thursday traveling to Tucson (and listening to Robert's new toy). Robert and I also stopped at Si Señor and the impressive library in Chandler, AZ. Si Señor is Robert's favorite Mexican restaurant and we didn't stop in last year while we were in Sedona, so this was a must for us. Though I enjoyed my meal, I got a bigger kick out of the librarian manning the front desk at the Chandler Library. She gave a friendly though guarded hello. I told her my story about checking out libraries on vacation, and she slipped me a library card and told me where the children's section was. She didn't ask me or anything. She just knew I worked on the children's side by looking at me. My heart couldn't have been happier.
Friday rolled around, and while you know the rest of the story, there are two sweet pictures taken shortly before I fell victim to snot and exhaustion.
Look at all of my nieces and nephew. Two are missing here - Izzy and Hayden. But I still felt like I won the lottery that morning, being a part of all their happiness and love. Jaeda and Harper are really sweet with each other and Landyn was very interested in Savannah. He is so big now! He was just a baby when I saw him last.
And here is one of my favorite nieces, Harper, at one of my favorite bookstores, Antigone, doing something weird with toys at the checkout and making me laugh. It wasn't the way I wanted to say goodbye on this trip, but definitely not the worst way to go.
Robert was a true friend and husband, racing home that Saturday, refraining from tooting his train whistle those long 20 hours on the road, even though I didn't have a voice to protest. He got me home, picked up our dogs, and before he got sick, bought enough Kleenex to keep us afloat.
I feel very loved and fortunate right now. Though I'm many miles from most of my family, the distance is made easier with all these pictures and memories. One lovely nerd and two soft and snuffly golden retrievers are also good for the heart.
