OHIO / PENNSYLVANIA / ON THE ROAD

LOOKING UP

ILLINOIS

Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?

You guys, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is GREAT.  Extremely well done, and far more interesting than I could have predicted.

MISSOURI

ARCHING

TEXAS

DRILLING

NEW MEXICO

FIESTA

Also:  finished listening to the last ten hours of the first book of Game of Thrones and let me say this:  Fuck you.  HOW ABOUT WRAPPING UP EVEN ONE LITTLE STRAND OF SOMETHING, IT'S CALLED THE *END* OF A BOOK FOR A REASON OMIGOD.

ARIZONA

Road trip #2 has begun and it is...

GRAND.

Stats, stet.

Road Trip 1 of 3 Complete!

Number of nights spent at friends' places: 13
Number of nights spent in motels: 2 (one on the way up, near Redding, CA, and one on the way down, near Medford OR)
Number of states and provinces visited:  4 (CA, OR, WA, BC [Canada])
Total miles driven: 3300
Minimum total number of Diet Cokes consumed: you don't want to know
Number of gas fill-ups (some only half tanks, though): 11
Highest price paid for gas: $4.39/gallon
Lowest price paid for gas: $3.79/gallon
Average miles per gallon:  33.82 (in my 2001 Toyota Corolla)
Number of hours of the audiobook of Game of Thrones listened to: 22 hours, 45 minutes (still not done, but close)
Number of speeding tickets received:  1 (AARRRRRGGGHHH.  For SUPPOSEDLY going 82 in a 65.)
Number of former students visited on their college campuses: 3 (Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Puget Sound)
Number of books bought from and signed by their authors:  2 (the previously mentioned Enlightening Moments by Gary and Radha Bello, and The Rabbi Wore Moccasins by Arthur Gross Schaefer)

Total number of nights I slept in my own bed until Road Trip 2 of 3 began this morning:  5

Here we go!

"Literature is like DNA..."

My last full day in the Bay Area was spent, again, Visiting Former Students At Their Universities.  I went to see the lovely and talented Hannah at UCSC - supposedly the University of California at Santa Cruz, but I can see now why it's often called UC Summer Camp.  Totally different view of the campus than I got at the beginning of this trip when I visited another friend there.

Took some of the apparently requisite Mom-pics...

 I took Hannah with me to dinner with good friends and then dancing at Loui Tucker's Monday night Israeli dance session (yay!) and there, Aaron gave me another lesson:  How to Poach A Pear.  This guy came seriously prepared! 

Which one is the college student?

On Tuesday, I went to my first-ever 8:30am college class, because when I was actually in college, I dropped every single class that started earlier than 10am.  (Nope, still not ashamed.)  I fit right in, no? 

Before hitting the road, Hannah taught me the guitar chords for "Nights in White Satin", one of my all-time favorite songs, and thereby ended the Northwest edition of the Teach Erica Something World Tour.  So happy, so satisfied, so ready for the Cross-Country edition!

Flawless.

Why did Snoop Dogg [Lion] need an umbrella? Fo'drizzle.

 Back to Seattle for a delightful Shabbat dinner and some more lessons, notably...














how to do a REAL LIVE MAGIC CARD TRICK THAT I DON'T SUCK AT TOO MUCH!

And then, continuing on with the Tour Of Former Students At Their Universities, I went to Puget Sound to see adorable Shosh and take the sort of pictures of her that her mom would take:

Next, on to Portland solely to spend more time and money than I really had to spare at Powell's City of Books, because, honestly, how could I not? (Did I download (and use!) the app?  Of COURSE I did.)

On the road with my audiobook for the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday.  I MIGHT have gotten a speeding ticket but I MIGHT be pretty pissed about it and not want to talk about it thankyouverymuch.  The redeeming stop for Sunday was dinner with some wonderful old friends from Cambridge, MA - funny that we all live in California now.  They're all married to each other with ADORABLE toddlers... well, almost-toddlers.  Somehow, Sola didn't make it into any of the post-able pictures, but it was so nice to see her and Stephen (and Skyren!) and Jofish and Erin (and Rebecca and Lizzie!), whom you can see here:

Sonata for Ten Hands

ZOMBIE BABY!

"We'll open the window so you can hear how polite everyone is during the merge."

[For the beginning of these adventures, or Why Is Erica in Canada, see here.]

So, I went to Canada, eh?  I drove up to Vancouver, got a stamp in my passport, and met up with some friends I met last year at Stockton Folkdance Camp.  They are an amazing couple and their house features a living room that looks out onto the harbor... and as soon as I walked in and sat down on their couch, I declared I was never leaving.  

Of course, moments later I was whisked off to a quick tour of the city, a walk across the Capilano Suspension Bridge, a visit to the hatchery where we saw actual salmon JUMPING up the ladder (awesome), a ride up Grouse Mountain on the aerial tramway cable car funicular thing and then an even higher ride up on the chairlift, and then we went even higher higher up to the Eye of the Wind, which the webpage says is "the world’s first and only wind turbine that allows you to stand in a clear glass viewPOD at the top of the tower, three metres from its massive, rotating blades."  Breath-taking and fabulous. On the way down, we saw some bears. Then dinner, ice cream, and we stayed up talking in that greatest-living-room-ever until 2 in the morning.

The view OF the Eye of the Wind

The view FROM the Eye of the Wind

The next morning we walked around Granville Island while the weather was lovely, and just as I left their house to go visit some other friends, it turned overcast.  Once safely inside the other friends' house COINCIDENTALLY JUST DOWN THE BLOCK ON THE SAME STREET, WHICH IS TO SAY I KNOW TWO PEOPLE IN ALL OF BRITISH COLUMBIA AND THEY LIVE ON THE SAME STREET, it began to rain.  I have to say, I really appreciate the way the weather has been working with me on this trip.

The other friends I was visiting were Gopal and Radha Bello, also known as the Swami and the Married Woman, who led the trip to India I went on with my mom in 2010.  I haven't seen them since the trip, and it was just wonderful to see them and catch up and be reminded of some of the enlightening moments I had during that incredible tour.  They signed their new book for me, we chanted the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra (Om Tryambakam, my favorite!) and I drove back to the US.

I will be back, for a much longer visit.  I need to sit in that living room again.