Us, December 25, 2021: Leo, Roy, Ondine, John, Shadow
Us, December 25, 2021: Leo, Roy, Ondine, John, Shadow
Wow, it's been a while! John finally got his old computer with all the files for this website creaking along again, so it works now, sort of. A LOT has happened since our last update.
The biggest news, is that from May 11 to June 6, we did the Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk, 192 miles across England from St. Bee's on the west coast to Robin Hood's Bay on the east coast. Most people do it in two weeks, but we did our Coast to Coast in 16 walking days with four layover days sprinkled throughout so we could explore the different areas. Add to that a few days at the end to connect with Desiree, Ondine's friend from Heidelberg, and a couple days on each end for travel time to and from England from San Diego, plus a couple days recovery/laundry/unpacking time once we got back home, and it comes out to us taking four weeks off work to make this happen! This trip has been at least six or seven years in the making, saving money and planning.
The Coast to Coast route runs through three very different national parks: the Lake District (think "Snow White and the Huntsman"), the Yorkshire Dales (think "All Creatures Great and Small" or "The Last of the Summer Wine"), and the North York Moors (think "Vera"). Our very first hiking day was a day of absolutely torrential rains, following (as the locals delighted in telling us) one of the wettest Winter and Spring seasons in memory. The rain was so blindingly heavy, we made the decision to divert from the route, opting to follow a bike path and then B-roads to our destination. Ondine had to trust John's old Boy Scout map and compass skills (our Harvey topo map was water-resistant, but didn't include several detours, including this one) coupled with Avenza Maps, the mapping and GIS app he uses for work.
The next couple days were also quite wet, off and on, so we never got to really appreciate the spectacular views possible from the tops of the fells, and scrambling up and down the trail of rainslicked, muddy slate rocks bordered at times on the semi-technical (we're looking at you, Greenup Edge). We later learned that the area, which had by early May already received half its usual rainfall for the month, received fully the other half in a single day while we were hiking! But, the weather improved, and although it technically could be said that it rained almost every day, it generally didn't rain enough to stop us. Mostly, we had beautiful, perfect cloudy-damp hiking days, and one really hot day. And, John really appreciated not having to wear glasses in the drizzle, his cataract surgery helped out a lot, even though he now needed glasses to read the map and navigate!
Despite relatively light signposting, especially through the Lake District, navigation on the route was easy as long as you paid attention and knew what you were doing. With all the criss-crossing trails and forks, the Coast to Coast is definitely not something to walk on autopilot!
Ondine got a blister under her toenail the very first day that was a problem until Kirkby Stephen, our second layover day, when she saw a podiatrist. John's feet and knees were annoyingly fine the entire trip, despite soggy feet for the first week and a total route elevation gain and loss equivalent to doing Everest. John did a couple days hiking solo, on days when Ondine's foot or knees needed a rest. He's now a total convert to Injinji toe socks, by the way; he used the Injinji liners under Darn Tough Coolmax mid-weight boot socks, and is now using Injiniji Coolmax mid-weight hiking socks as his everyday work socks.
Some of our favorite memories are the places we had layover days: Crookabeck near Patterdale, Bollam Cottage on the outskirts of Kirkby Stephen (home of "the Cathedral of the Dales"), 66 Frenchgate in Richmond (where we saw a musical: USS Pinafore, Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore set on a starship), Great Broughton (where we went into nearby Stokesley and had an epically good meal at a tiny Italian restaurant called Uno Momento, then missed our stop taking the bus back, ending up at a friendly bar a few towns over), and the Fernleigh in Robin Hood's Bay (where we met up with Desiree and her friend Carola, went to a local "curry and a pint night," and John found a belemnite fossil on the beach). We also took the historic Ullswater Ferry. And John got to see archaeology every day, ranging from the Victorian industrial landscape all the way back to Bronze Age barrows and stone circles. Roman and Medieval stuff was simply everywhere. Another favorite hotel was the Westmorland in the unlikely spot of Tebay, basically a motorway stop with an excellent farm-to-table hotel and restaurant with an attached farm shop, run by the local farmers whose land was used to make the motorway.
The food was uniformly good to excellent, with a few amazing meals thrown in for good measure, like the home-made pancetta risotto and berry brulee at Park House in Arncliffe Woods. The only disappointment was the world-famous Shap Chippy, which we'd eagerly anticipated for years leading up to the trip; the reality was not even up to being mediocre. Even the pre-packed sandwiches from the Co-ops were fresh and very tasty, and the packed lunches made by the hotels were all hearty and often a highlight of the day's hike. John scored all of his food grails: smoky bacon crisps (very hard to find but amazing, in the same family as bbq potato chips but better), a Curly Wurly bar (like a Marathon bar, remember those?), a Tizer (the fruity-herby soft drink we need in this country), Polo candies (like peppermint Lifesavers, but harder and more peppery and less chalky and altogether better), a pork pie (way more porky and uniformly textured than expected but very tasty), a Bitter Lemon (a tart, sparkly mixer that seems to be out of fashion; only one place had it the whole trip), a stop at a Costa Coffee (think British Starbucks), sticky toffee pudding (very sticky, quite rich, and sweet), and roly poly pudding and jam (sickeningly sweet, as expected from one reference in a P.G. Wodehouse story). He even enjoyed a bit of black pudding!
Our gear mostly worked out great, and we didn't significantly overpack, which is a solid accomplishment. The SnugPak rain ponchos we'd bought with this trip in mind turned out to be the ideal solution, and although we also packed rain jackets we only used them in town. Ondine found that she'd packed a bit too tightly for daily unpacking and packing, so we ended up going to an Oxfam charity shop in Richmond and scoring a gray Slazenger duffel bag for 4 pounds, which is now one of our favorite souvenirs.
John's favorite souvenir is the belemnite fossil he found, but we also spent our last large British notes on a couple books at Heathrow on our way home. Ondine got Underland by Robert MacFarlane, and John got Stoner by John Williams.
The only significant equipment failure was Ondine's Black Diamond trekking poles, although John was less than thrilled with his Gregory Zulu 30 backpack for reasons likely unique to him.
Photos and videos are on our respective Instagram pages, although in John's case he's such an active poster that you have to scroll back a ways to get to them. His videos are mostly him talking about ruins or old buildings, but he has some walkalongs too. John's IG is @archaeoka (it's private, so send him a follow request and if he knows you, you're in) and Ondine's is @ondine.alegra.
OK, that's all pretty big news, but there were also Roy's birthday and Leo's birthday in there! For his birthday Roy chose to go to Texas Roadhouse on Fletcher Parkway, yum! Then, later, for Leo's birthday, Leo chose Jeong Won near Convoy, an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ. Various cooler tables held an array of meats, veggies, sauces, and sides, and we had a grill in the middle of our table. Excellent!
Also, we got another car! Yes, we are now a four-car family, but Leo has been getting by with public transportation, friends, and an e-scooter long enough; his current program of study has him taking classes at Cuyamaca College in addition to Grossmont College so he needs a car to get there. He shopped for and located a 2012 Chevrolet Volt, which seemed fine when we looked at it, and moreover, we trusted the seller, so we ended up buying it. So Leo now is driving a Chevy Volt! He hasn't had to buy gas since, because his commute to Grossmont is well within the Volt's electric-only range. We knew the car needed an axle replacement, which we got done at John's Automotive. We also had them to a full pre-purchase check to see what repairs might be coming up, and they found nothing at all needing attention; they said the car was in excellent shape!
Leo finished his summer class, Calculus 2, with an A and one of the top scores in the class. He put a lot of work into that! He said the class started out full, but the accelerated course was so tough that by the mid-term nearly half the class had dropped.
Roy competed in the California State Games, capturing the bronze medal! He did better than he expected in his first judo tournament in, oh, six years? Eight?
Our homeowner's insurance non-renewal saga came to a semi-happy ending, in that we found insurance, and we actually have, on paper, better coverage than we had before for less money. BUT our new insurer is not enrolled in California, which means it's not subject to any of the consumer protections California requires, which means that if there's a big wildfire, and if there are a lot of claims that this company has to pay out, the money might not be there and there will likely be no recourse through the state if that happens. It's the same boat all our neighbors are in, if not now, then very soon; insurance companies are staggering their non-renewals to prevent a major news story.
We don't often mention national/international news except in our annual Year In Review, but it's been a huge few weeks. Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, bowed to pressure from within his party and bowed out of the 2024 presidential race, endorsing his vice president, former California attorney general Kamala Harris as the new presumptive nominee. The Republican party had its share of drama as well, with its presumptive nominee, former president Donald Trump, the victim of an assassination attempt that left him wounded and a bystander dead. It's like that old curse: "May you live in interesting times." In hopefully non-political news, the Summer Olympic Games have started in Paris, France!
John has been steadily working on a local project that keeps him very busy, for which he's grateful! His right shoulder has been giving him trouble, and he has an appointment at Kaiser this week to have it looked at by his primary care physician, whom he hasn't seen in nearly 20 years.
Ondine is working on some short stories, and is taking a short story class. She's been going to pilates as well as Jazzercise, having started pilates before our trip for strength training. She visits her mom almost every weekend; Barbara is doing very well at Sungarden Terrace and seems well taken care of.
Aunt Bea came down to visit, and we managed to connect with her for an early dinner at Mimi's Cafe.
Shadow the mutt is getting hard of hearing, not surprising since he's at least 14 years old now. We've started incorporating hand signals with verbal commands. He has an appointment for his vaccinations and heartworm test coming up, though, so we'll have his ears checked just in case it's an easy fix. He's still a strong walker and jumper, though! We took him to Coronado dog beach a few weeks back.
We decided to keep our tomato plants in pots this year. Right now it seems that the bigger the pot the better the plant, but we'll see how things go.
We saw the first play in the new Lamplighters Community Theatre season, Neil Simon's The Odd Couple in a gender-swapped adaptation.
We made another huge clearout of stuff from Barbara's house and ours that included a haulaway service and a couple trips to Goodwill with Prius-loads of old clothes and household stuff. And, we canceled our old landline, so if you call the 9375 number, we have no idea who you're going to get. We still have a landline, but it's John's old business number. On the acquisitions side (in addition to the Chevy Volt), we got a new lamp for the living room, replacing one that simply decomposed in place, and a new shredder.
OK, that's us up to date. Seriously, follow us on Instagram for almost daily pictures!
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