Goodbye, California (Again)

We’re going home! We actually have return tickets, for Saturday. It has been a truly lovely, fun seven weeks, but we are ready to go, even if it means returning to frigid temperatures. I’m not quite sure how we’re going to survive this, our first real winter in five years. But I have a new winter coat, hat, mittens, and Nanouk of the North fur booties for Lucia, so we’re going in prepared.

Things we’ve loved about Mountain View: the Eagle Park playground, the public library, the Mother Goose & More program at the library, walking down Castro Street, the smore’s bars at Le Boulanger, shopping at Trader Joe’s, driving to Target, going to Paper Source, watching Lucia stand at the window to wave goodbye to Andrew’s colleagues catching the shuttle to work (even on days when Andrew’s not among them), playing outside pretty much every day for a little while, exploring all the beautiful fallen fall leaves, buying far too many books at the library book sale, seeing the Clarks, seeing Julie and Alison from Auburn, soaking in the hot tub at night. And, of course, Lucia started to walk here and said her first word here, weaned here, started sleeping through the night here (12-plus hours!). I worry the magic of the sleeping will disappear once we’re back in Brooklyn; I hope it doesn’t.

But all Lucia’s toys and books await, and I just can’t get back to a normal kitchen fast enough. I might make something elaborate and time-consuming next week just because I can—something involving, oh, a double boiler, a Dutch oven, an immersion blender, a stand mixer, and an array of spices.

We have a flight to get through. But then we will be home, in Christmassy New York, in winter. Goodbye once again, California. But I have a feeling we’ll be seeing you again.