level of supervision

Ahoy,

We have long been discussing the need to repaint our garage. Over the years, there has been a bunch of graffiti painted on and painted over on the wall, but the color was mismatching and you could tell only the graffiti parts had been painted over. So this project has been a long time coming. I put on my bossypants (did I ever take them off?) and commissioned the siblings Tam to get this done! It faces the street so you too can spot our house as you stroll the residences of the Bridgeport neighborhood.

My mom walked outside to find us in the middle of painting our Batman mural. She asks, "What are you guys doing?"

This, my reader(s), is the level of supervision my brother and I have had our whole life.

judiciously accomplished,
jt

summer is here

Ahoy,

I went to Chicago for my brother's graduation and his birthday. I brought a friend and gave her a tour. She speaks Mandarin so I knew she would get along with my mom. We arrived super duper delayed on a Thursday evening/ Friday morning. It was kind of not my favorite time flying. It was warm and humid in Chicago, if a little chillier than that time of year.

The following day I took my tourist friend wandering downtown. We walked a lot. She was mega-pooped at the end of the day. We hit up Chicago Cultural Center, Millennium Park, Maggie Daley Park, Daley Plaza, Chicago French Market, a Rick Bayless place, a Stephanie Izard place. And I feel like there was more. Maggie Daley Park is so fun, I highly recommend, and there is no age limit on the playground! I made the call to go home to bother my brother because he didn't want to come out with us. Per usual. Weather was blustery and overcast this day, uncharacteristic for the time of year.

The following day I had to drag A out of bed to get us to K's graduation. It was pretty short compared to A's that would take place the following Saturday. Afterwards, we went home for lunch and made it back out. Farther north was the grand opening of the Bloomingdale Trail. I had been anticipating this project for a while, so I was super duper excited. We walked the whole length of it twice that day. I love Chicago in the summer. For dinner I was happy to finally make it to the Publican. Weather was absolutely PERFECT this day. Sunny and warm, if a little cool for June.

The following day started off a little cool and rainy. But quickly warmed up to HOT and humid. Luckily we spent the day in the gym. We introduced Maxwell's to the foreigners. It was a hot, so was the Italian ice. In honor of K's birthday, everybody gathered for pizza at a local favorite. K's gf initiated it and I think it went well. I know K definitely scored with some giftcards.

Per K's request we spent the next day cleaning out the garage a little. We sneakily brought a lot of things to the donation bin at our local thrift store. We knew we had to get it out before our mom came home to catch us. Also, we began work on our Batman mural.

hurriedly athunder,
jt

everything is far

Ahoy,

So we exited the Park through the Fresno side because the RRS wanted oysters. Since it was early in the day and we were in no hurry, this gave us the opportunity to make stops along the way. The skies cleared and temperature went up as we made our way down the mountain. Despite our relatively gloomy weekend, I was in no hurry to return to the blinding sunshine of CA. We stopped at a fruit stand and bought a bunch of fruit that would have been much more expensive in the city. The fruit was delicious. I would love to frequent these stands. Too bad they are far away in the middle of nowhere. We looped over to Palos Robles that turned out to be farther than we thought and just as interesting as watching paint dry. At last, we could smell the sea breeze at Morro Bay. We had stopped there before for oysters. We ended up going to the one and only place we've ever patronized and probably will ever patronize. It was all so yummy in my tummy, and there was live music, and it was outdoor seating right over the water. You can't beat that.

One our way back down to LA we stopped for ice cream at Santa Barbara. You can never go wrong with ice cream. The town gave us a sort of snooty vibe, which is not typical of most beach towns and we decided it was not for us. Just the ice cream was for us.

We got home later than we thought and I would have been happy to just shower and tuck in, but the RRS wanted to cook. Sometimes he's handy to have around.

fastidiously towed,
jt

treestreestrees

Ahoy,

For Memorial Day weekend we finally made it out to Sequoia National Park! The trip had been slotted for several other weekends that fell through until this weekend. I asked at the beginning of the year if we could make it out to Sequoia this year. It's just that whenever we go to Yosemite we pass the sign for Sequoia and I can't help but remark how it's closer and we could just hop off the highway earlier to go to Sequoia instead of Yosemite. I didn't know very much about Sequoia, I just knew it was closer and therefore I wanted to go.

The weather was slated to be very favorable. In fact, it was pretty likely to rain. I booked a campsite in the Sequoia National Forest thinking that it would be close enough, but alas, I realized it was a 3 hour drive from our campsite to the Park! So we ditched the campsite and decided to just drive up to the Park and hopefully score a first come first serve campsite. Worst case scenario we would have to go back to our original site.

After entering the park, it was quite a long and winding path to get to a campsite that was available. We passed up a few that were all full. As we approached higher elevation it started to rain, and then it started to rain harder, and it continued to rain. The elements always add a wow factor to any trip outdoors. In line for a campsite, the ranger told us the car in front of us got the last reservation! In times like these I think back to all the moments that delayed us that would have gotten us a campsite. It was about another 20 minutes to the next campsite and I sulked regretfully about what had led us to our predicament.

Sequoia National Park & Kings Canyon National Park are technically 2 separate parks but operate as one. The path in the parks goes through National Forest land going from Sequoia in the south to Kings Canyon in the north. We found our campsite at Stony Creek Village in the National Forest. We rolled in and found a lot of empty sites. The ranger flagged us down and told us there were walk ins available and we breathed a huge sigh of relief. Also, the rain had subsided - so everything worked out. This was the cutest campsite I'd ever stayed. We had our own creek that we had to cross to get to our site. It was huge and as private as we could hope for. Plus, since it was still National Forest we were able to transfer our original reservation to this site with no additional cost. Bonus!

The following morning we went on a Crystal Caves tour first thing. It included a short and steep walk downhill to the cave. We learned that you're not supposed to wear the same clothes to any cave tours because you could be carrying a disease from cave to cave. So we had to make mental note to wear something different for our next cave tour. Cave dwellings are so cool.

We met up with our friends who arrived just on time to our site. It's always great when people can be timely and reliable. Off we went to see some trees, the biggest tree. We saw General Sherman (~ 2,200 years old) covered in fog. There's something magical, spooky, and eerie about a forest enshrined in fog. I feel like it's more of a unique and rare experience to see a forest like this. It's a testament to nature and how flexible you have to be, how undemanding you need to be of its powers. It will give you whatever experience it wants. You are just another creature amongst giants. We walked around a meadow of giants too, and I think since it was after the rain and spring - all the bears must have been out. Because we saw 8 over the course of 2 hours. We saw 6 (3 of them cubs) in one meadow and I think 1 adult bear was not even 12 feet away at its closest point, and 1 each at 2 other meadows. Also, 2 marmots. Back at our campsite we saw 3 mule deer. So much wildlife! What a treat. I felt honored to be in the woods that day.

After A & I struggled with our wet fire ring the night before, we knew we had to make a new game plan. The fire was successful that night despite the hail and rain that poured on us. We stood over the fire with umbrellas for a good 15 minutes while the sky cried. Canned soup never tastes so glorious as around a campfire.

The following day we headed up to Kings Canyon to see the General Grant, the nation's Christmas tree. We hopped out of the Park after that to make our way home. It was a short trip, but action packed. I couldn't have asked for a better time.

 happily smoky,
jt