Christmas 2013
I don’t know why we even need another year. We saw it all in
2013. And as far as I’m concerned, I have seen enough age related deterioration
of my physical self to know that I will have no more part of it, thank you very
much. Time can stop right here.
For example:
Emily saw snow falling in Southern
California.
We touched the Endeavor space craft and Rose Parade floats.
We met a family in Theodore Roosevelt
National Park who
suggested we inch our van forward so they could keep its bulk between them and
the bison that had just charged through their ranks. I’m pretty sure infantrymen in WWI did the
same thing with the first tanks. It was everything we could do not to ask why
they had left their own vehicle in the midst of a herd of bison. It’s best not to ask insane people too many
questions.
We said goodbye to a beloved pet and adopted a new one.
Generally, I don’t see how 2014 can live up to the high
standard set by this year; disappointment surely awaits.
Timothy Leary said all great literature is about a
trip. We took trips all right, but not
Timothy Leary’s kind.
Jenn went off with her mother for five days, playing the
ultimate tourist in a game of New York
City smackdown.
The city never stood a chance against these two. You name it—they saw
it.
Claire, Emily, my dad and I reprised our car trip from last
year from Garden Grove to Wascott, Wisconsin. We hiked Arches
National Park and saw the last unburnt
parts of Colorado. It was a very fun first leg to our summer
travels.
Jenn joined us in Minneapolis
for our road trip home during August, our highlight of the year. We spent seven days on the road and stayed at
KOAs most nights in our tent, eating one hot meal per day. It was loads of fun seeing Yellowstone,
the crazy bison-baiting family, Little Bighorn battlefield and the Grand
Tetons. I devised a wicked little social experiment on the integrity of
Midwesterners our first night out: I left my wallet behind in a Perkins
restaurant. Jenn was less impressed, as
it meant my turn behind the wheel was performed sans driver’s license. But the Midwesterners passed, as we knew they
would, mailing my wallet to our home address with all the cash inside.
Outside Yellowstone, Red Lodge, Montana was our favorite small town. We had pretty good Mexican food, and I tried
the sampler platter of beers at the microbrew next door. It reminded me of Jackson
Hole without the crush of tourists. We walked the downtown and were charmed by
its red geraniums in huge flower pots and live music drifting out of the pubs.
By the time we got home, it was nearly time for school to
start. Emily attends the local middle
school, and Claire officially goes to Barker, but its campus is closed for
remodeling. Emily was up in our local
mountains for science camp in March, and this is when she saw it snow. Now she thinks she wants to live somewhere
with precipitation, like Seattle. It’s not the traffic, the idiots or the
mundane suburbia that will drive my daughter out of CA—it’s the weather.
In November it was time for our annual Joshua Tree weekend
with three other families: the Jows, the Kims and the Zeemans. Hiking,
climbing, sitting and socializing were the orders of the day. All activities were accomplished, but not by
all attendees. Age seemed to be a
deciding factor. All the families are veterans now and things run smoothly.
As our last memorable excursion of the year, we took a tour
of Huntington Harbor in one of those electric Duffy boats to see the Christmas
decorations. It’s similar to Newport harbor, except
that instead of ridiculously extravagant the decorations are merely garishly
over-the-top. We had cookies and hot
apple cider.
In the non-trip category, there are two big contenders for
occurrence of the year. We attended a celebration of my grandparents’ 70th
wedding anniversary. Try not to think
about how old you’ll be at yours. We had
a photo montage and scrapbooks to look at while we snacked.
Number two was the adoption of our chocolate lab, Bailey,
from a family who couldn’t keep her with a newborn in the house. At first I thought, “Labs are great with
babies!” But after a week with her, I understood that she needs only slightly
less attention than a newborn. She is active,
loving and very active. I thank heavens
for the inventor of tennis balls, because without them we would have difficulty
filling the time. She is not much of a conversationalist.
That’s it for us.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,
The Leebs
