Not all great travel happens in India!  As I head back from my much-enjoyed summer vacation, I realized there were many experiences worthy of a blog post!  Aside from quality family time, I was able to explore some new places and visit some old favorites with fresh eyes.

First was a reunion in California with great friends from when I worked and lived in the Bay Area.  The ten of us rented a house in beautiful Bodega Bay and had 4 days of laughter, good food and drink, nature and games.  I won’t bore you with photos of that (other than one of us sitting around and chatting), but will share the photos I took of the flora and fauna of the area.

The birds, as always, intrigued me.

Between meals we managed to drag ourselves out of the house and visit the town of Bodega, where The Birds was filmed.

Next up, my daughter Sophia joined me in California and we visited some more friends, as well as the Marin Headlands and Muir Woods. These two places never get old, the views are stunning and its hard to believe such beauty exists so close to a major city and civilization.

Next up was visiting Sonoma County. The main goal was to have a meal at Folktable, a restaurant where the executive chef is a Top Chef alumni (Sophia and I are big fans of the show). Casey Thompson creates seasonally inspired menus with ingredients locally sourced. This restaurant, recipient of the Michelin Bib Gourmand award, has incredible food that blew us away.

While waiting for our reservation, we happened to pass by the Gloria Ferrer sparkling winery. We were unable to have a tasting (booked solid) but the real treat was sitting in chairs under a tree and soaking in the stunning view.

Earlier in the day we had a scheduled visit to Buena Vista winery. I chose this as it was the original winery in Sonoma, so there was a historical significance. The tour guide was quite good, the video a big disappointment, the wine as expected. We did enjoy going though a maze though and I was able to take some fun pictures, which included a very large eucalyptus tree.

We had an opportunity to briefly explore downtown Sonoma.  Sophia, not as interested in history as me, opted out of the Sonoma Mission visit.  I learned a lot about the great state of California while teaching its history to grade 4 students.  One aspect that intrigued me was the mission system set up by the Spanish.

These 21 missions, starting in San Diego and ending in Sonoma, were spaced approximately 30 miles apart, which was a day’s travel at the time.  This allowed for a guaranteed place to stay as well to solidify Spain’s hold on the territory and for the church to work on converting local inhabitants.  Such motivations today are suspect but I was into looking at the architecture and was enamored by the music playing in the chapel.

The next day was a lot more fun as we explored Napa and visited two wineries, pre-booked (something you need to do if visiting).  Visiting wineries is not like in the old days when we went and tried a glass of wine for free (or a minimal cost) with a tour explaining the wine making process.  Today you pay a large amount of money (ranging from $30-70) for the privilege of sitting and drinking – as well as paying for food.  That said, the two places we visited did not disappoint.

First, we visited Honig Wineries (due to their connection with honey making which is a favorite of Sophia’s).  We learned the word honig in German means honey!  This is a family-run winery, and Governor Honig (who was in office when I lived in California) is part of this family and lives on the estate.  Part of our package was a tour of the vineyards where we learned a lot about wine making and this family’s commitment to eco-friendly farming.  Some interesting tidbits I learned were 1) growing vines near each other promotes competition between the plants and results in better yields, 2) if a white wine is in a green bottle the vintner is sending you a message that this is high quality white wine and can be aged, and 3) foil is not needed anymore for preserving wine so therefore they discontinued this practice in 2021.  Anyone who still uses foil on the cork does so for sentimental reasons.

On the way to our next location we stopped in Napa for a snack.  We checked out the Culinary Institute but the place didn’t impress us, other than this cool sculpture.

We ended up exploring the infamous Oxbow Public Market, a hodgepodge of stalls selling lots in gourmet items, artisans’ work, and one the best stocked bookstores I have ever seen (Napa Bookmine).  We indulged in some cornbread from Moro, which is a stall inspired by Moroccan street food.  It did not disappoint, and the dipping sauce/butter was particularly tasty and unique.

Our exploration of Napa Valley ended with a tasting at Domaine Carneros, the sister winery of Taittinger’s.  Opened in 1988, the building is a replica of the country home and estate of the Taittinger family.   Carneros is the region between Napa and Sonoma valleys and is a newer wine growing zone, especially liked due to its cool climate and foggy mornings.  The setting was quite lovely (complete with a couple who had just become engaged), and we indulged in an expensive sparkling wine tasting (crafted in the traditional method) and paired food.  This indulgence included smoked sturgeon pate and a cheese plate with local artisanal cheeses – to die for delicious.

Then we started the long drive to Sonora where we spent the night before entering Yosemite National Park. The drive, through the Central Valley – flat and full of farms, was uneventful but did afford me time to reflect on the diverse topography of California and reminded me how much I loved living here. We Googled breakfast places and Mandy’s was advertised as the best…it was. Highly recommend it should you be in the area. A bit of a drive out of town but WORTH IT!.

While we were driving towards Yosemite Sophia discovered that there was a tour one could take which turned out to be one of the best decisions of our travels.  The park ranger was funny, engaging and extremely knowledgeable (of course, a former teacher).  Since our time was limited in the park, this allowed us to see the majority of the valley and learn a lot about the nature and history of the park.

Sophia’s dream was to see El Capital as she has always loved the Academy Award winning documentary Free Solo, which documented the rope-free climb by Alex Honnold.  The view didn’t disappoint nor did the facts we learned about him and the climb.  Unusually, there were no climbers the day we were there, but it was awe-inspiring to see this hallowed mountain for climbers, quite humbling when you observe how huge it is.  We saw the forest hill where the climbers descend and learned that it is illegal to parasail/kite in the park but at times you can see adrenaline junkies do this, landing and then running away to a waiting car.  One enthusiast said he has the fine money in the bank should he ever get caught!

Half Dome is the other famous Yosemite mountain, and I learned about the Three Brothers during this visit.

Another highlight is Yosemite falls, the highest waterfall in North America (2,450 feet) and 5th highest in the world.

There were other stunning waterfalls as well, with interesting names: Bridal Veil and Ribbon!

I was enamored by rock formations, mountains made of rock and a few hearty trees growing. God’s artistry at work.

Included in this valley of beauty were fields and the Merced River, with water so clear you can see the rocks and fish without difficulty.  It was in a field that we saw our only wildlife: a Mike Deer.  You can often see bears, but we were not lucky.

A highlight of the tour was driving up to view the valley from above.  

We learned if the branches grow straight out, it is a White Pine. If droopy, it’s a Douglas.  We also learned to tell the difference between a regular pine and a Sequoia – the bottom swells out on a Sequoia.

Our visit ended with visiting the historic Ahwahnee, a luxury hotel within the valley.  This is considered an architectural masterpiece, blending with the surroundings and affording you views of Half Dome and Yosemite Falls.  The Grand Dining Room wasn’t open for lunch, so we ate in the bar – a delicious meal, excellent service and yummy Lavender lemonade!  

After that whirlwind visit, we continued on to San Francisco where we had 24 hours to soak in the essence of the city.  We were pretty tired and kept a slow but focused pace.  We were staying at the Hyatt across the street from the Giants’ baseball stadium where we saw memorials to the great Willy Mays, who had died that week.

First order of business was seeing the sea lions on pier 39.  These gentle giants first appeared after the 1990 earthquake and quickly became a profitable sightseeing spot for local businesses, so they were allowed to stay.  Experts at the Marine Mammal Center believe they like it here because there is plenty of food, it’s comfortable to rest and most importantly there is protection from predators like sharks and orcas.  We watched as the large group were jumping in and out of the water, vying for space and barking for various reasons.  However, I was drawn to the two ‘loners’ who understood the power of calm and quiet.  One was sunning himself on his own dock and one was swimming away from the rest of the animals.

The day also included walking around Fisherman’s Wharf where Sophia bought Ben his birthday present and I got SF’s finest Ghirardelli chocolate for my teachers.

Lunch took us to the Presidio (a former military base, converted to home bases for various non-profit and other such businesses) for lunch at Dalida, our second Top Chef restaurant experience.  This was even more special because Laura -who own the restaurant with her husband- was on this season and finished 4^th.  The food was good, as expected, but the best was meeting Laura – who came out and spent 15 minutes with us chatting.  When Sophia said we had visited Turkey (Laura’s husband is Turkish and much of the menu has this cuisine) she exclaimed ‘that is why you connect with me – I focus on blending cultures through food’.

I indulged in an amazing cocktail with lavender, mint and some other Turkish spices and a great glass of wine (I wasn’t driving!).  The mezza plate was yummy, but the highlight was the dessert – a deconstructed baklava that she re-created on Top Chef.  Needless to say, the service and ambiance was exceptional.

Our time in San Francisco ended with a boat trip around the bay, a real highlight – especially going under the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was quite windy, but the sky cleared as we floated along.  The sights were beautiful and watching a kite-boarder (I don’t know the official name of the sport) was impressive. 

As always, I end this portion of the blog with street art and a photo of the largest dog I have ever seen!

Upon returning to New York, there were three excursions that are worthy of being posted on this blog.  The first was a visit to the Hopper House Museum in my hometown of Nyack, NY where this illustrious artist was born.   I had known about this museum for many years (it opened in the 1970s) and it only took 64 years to finally visit. My older sister came up to NY for the weekend and we wanted to do something different, hence the visit.  This is a small museum and while it doesn’t really have a lot of Hopper art on display (other than some childhood works the family hung), it displays other artists’ work and there is an exceptional video narrated by Steve Martin explaining Hopper’s significance as an artist and how his ideas impacted modern art in the US.

Born towards the end of the 19^th century, Hopper was a Nyack resident until he started commuting to NY for college and eventually work.  He even graduated from Nyack High School!  His talent was evident early on, as was his desire to be an artist for he started signing and dating his work from the age of 10!  His mother encouraged his talent and culture was an important part of their household.

Hopper is considered the embodiment of the authentic American artist.  He focuses on the interplay between light and location, and he remained true to realism even while impressionism was in vogue (although his use of light was influenced by this movement).

Hopper enjoyed etching as well and used this media to explore light and shadow, which forever influenced his painting.  He is quoted as saying “After I took up etching, my painting seemed to crystalize”.  His sense of mystery and storytelling blossomed, as did the themes of the isolation and lack of privacy in urban life .  His works tell a story and give you a sense of peeking into a someone’s life.  Just like authors and actors create back stories to add depth to their work, Hopper (and his wife) did the same, giving names to the anonymous subjects.  This resulted in the viewer’s needing to combine their eyes and their imagination when reflecting on his urban scenes.  As the viewer we need to finish the story. Hopper also used light and detail intentionally to draw your attention, he painted details only where he wanted your eyes to go. 

These are some of my favorite pieces by him, most I downloaded from the internet.

Hopper’s interest in maritime themes started early on and continued through his life.  The docks on the Hudson River (which he could see from his bedroom window) were a common source of inspiration.

Married to a fellow artist, whose work is below, Josephine was an ardent promotor and catalogued his work.

The contemporary artist on display, Dike Blair, was influenced by Hopper’s fascination with cinema and narrative in paintings.  He used his own point-and-shoot photographs and paintings to offer his own narratives where light is the character, blending realism with the unreality of movies. These are the two pieces that spoke to me.

We leave the Hopper House Museum with this quote, painted on the stairway wall.

Another gem of a museum is the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Ct.  My brother, sister-in-law and I decided to go there due to the Andy Warhol exhibit, which was nice – but there was so much more to see!

The Warhol exhibit was called Small is Beautiful and contained 100 pieces.  They covered the span of his career and had examples from his prominent subject matter: celebrity, consumerism, flowers, and Catholicism (including death).

I learned that Warhol’s interest in fame was both a concept and a personal goal, with his portraits evolving from celebrities, politicians to himself and fellow artists.

Then the unexpected happened as we walked into the adjoining gallery and saw the William Richter Collection of Barbizon and Impressionist paintings.  Barbizon painters were the first to go outside, rebelling against idealizing natural form and painting what they saw in a less formal manner.  From these innovators Impressionism grew.  Here we see Corot who convinced Pissarro to paint outside, who then influenced Gaugin!  Even John Singer Sargent, known best for portraits, joined in the movement and went outside to paint.  There was a Renoir here, as well as a Cezanne and a Rousseau!  In one small room I was able to soak in some of the greatest masters of the era, seeing paintings I had not seen before.

Learning this about Matisse’s daughter was astounding. Clearly a formidable woman!

Across the room, some Surrealistic works influenced by Freud and Marx were hanging.

Then there was an exhibit on David Hockney, a Pop Artist I was not that familiar with either, focusing on his earlier works. Being Greenwich, Ct, these pieces were from the private collection of local residents, Roy B. and Edith J. Simpson.

Panama Hat depicts the portrait of Gelzahler without him being in the composition.  The museum writes “This unconventional portrait plays with the ideas of presence and absence, an underlying theme in several of the artist’s compositions, especially his well-known painting from the mid-1960w that feature the splashes in pools left by unseen figures.”

I absolutely fell in love with this piece called A Grand Procession of Dignitaries in the Semi-Egyptian Style, 1961, which Hockney competed while a student at the Royal College of Art, in London.

Probably predecessors of his later pool paintings, Hockney collaborated with a printer to make paper on a hydraulic press where the colors were infused into the pulp.  Since he was limited to the size of the press, his innovative solution was to create sheets based on his sketched and then he put the pieces together.  He was working on how to depict the pictorial effects of light, color and movement, in water – with the different sheets of paper helping to convey the distortion water creates.

This installation by Tana Donovan (called Aggregations), which made me want to curl up in the soft fluffy cotton-ball looking balls, is actually made of glass rods!  Her work takes every day objects and re-creating them into something new and unique.

Next up…a room with the mineral collection of Robert R. Wiener, whose fascination started at age 7, and resulted in the largest collection (4000 pieces), many of which were displayed.  These pieces were works of art.  I learned that each mineral tells its own story as the structure, color and growth are a combination of their atomic composition and its interaction with chemistry, heat, pressure and spacing.

Next a quick walk through two more rooms – one dedicated to how man and nature protect themselves and one a hands-on animal exhibit for kids.

There was an exhibit of art by incredibly talented high school students. Here is a sampling. The students range from 9th to 12th grade.

Last and without a doubt NOT least, was an installation created by Jennifer Angus.  This was an immersive experience made out of insects…thousands of them arranged into ornate patterns and pictures.  The work is a piece within a piece within a piece – almost too much to take in. You get the whole then you step closer and you get details, but you can’t process every detail because there are so many of them.

The museum writes, “The Golden Hour is a site-specific exhibition inspired by the enchanting glow of the day’s final rays of sunlight, surrounded by nature’s fleeting richness on the cusp of biodiversity’s twilight.  She invites visitors on a winding journey through three chambers of wonder.  In The Village, dollhouses tower overhead while insect beckon like stained glass windows.  In Cabinet of Curiosities, insects stage dozens of intriguing scenes ranging from executions to coronations.  Finally, as the light fades, other animals gather at The Dinner Party, poised in eleventh-hour deliberations of our ongoing climate crisis.”

A Google search (jenniferangus.com) brought me to her website where I learned she is Canadian, only does site specific works, and she reuses insects and other natural objects (some are 20 years old).  “Drawing upon my background in textile design, I often place insects upon walls in patterns which mimic those of textiles and wallpaper. This strategy lulls the viewer into complacency, for at a distance the designs suggest an interior, perhaps even a domestic space. However, upon discovery that the ornate patterns are formed of insects, viewers’ feelings typically fluctuate between incredulity and amazement, and very occasionally terror. Herein lies the power of the work as the observer is confronted with considering insects in a new light.”  I can say my reaction fell in the amazement category.

Next ….July 4^th, my brother’s gig and some random moments. Stay tuned!