Back to California...

After Brett returned from his scary difficult hiking trip with his college buddies (you can read about it here), he and Veronica left Grandma’s to head back to Brett’s house. He drove down Highway 1 so they could stop in Big Sur...

After spending so much time exploring the coast of England, Veronica really enjoyed finally getting to see the dramatic California coastline.

They spent the night camping north of Santa Barbara. 

The next morning, Brett showed her around where he lived for four years while he studied at UC Santa Barbara. 

They arrived back in San Diego in time to attend Nick and Megan’s rehearsal dinner (at The Boathouse, where Jimmy and I had our third date and first discussed how many kids we’d have)...

…and their wedding at Liberty Station. Not only was this Brett’s first time being a Groomsman, let alone the Best Man, but it was his first time ever attending a wedding.  

The ceremony was beautiful and Veronica really enjoyed getting to meet and party with so many of Brett’s friends. Despite no masks, it wasn’t a superspreader event, which Veronica was nervous about. 

Their final night in San Diego was spent sleeping on Brett friend’s floor without their beloved sleeping bags.
 

Wild Swimming in the Sierras...

Veronica couldn’t resist swimming in many of the beautiful Alpine lakes that they encountered.

Some with swimsuits...

…and many without.

Some alone...

…and some with others.

 

Beautiful Eastern Sierras...

Although I grew up in California and lived there for 29 years, I am still blown away by its natural beauty. Veronica and Brett’s trip was a good reminder of how much of the state that I’ve never seen myself or haven’t seen since I was a kid when I underappreciated how incredible it is. Here are my favorites of the photos that Veronica shared with us during her journey.

Here’s their post of the highlights from their adventures, including this sunset at Thousand Island Lake.

 

Meanwhile in California...

After months of planning and many trips to REI, Veronica and Brett left San Diego on July 18 for 12 days of backcountry camping and hiking in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains.

While I was paranoid about the rampant wildfires spreading throughout California and the devastating drought affecting much of the state, no fires were nearby and they always had fresh water available. They were offline while out in the wilderness, but touched base with us every third day when they got back to the car and moved to their next location. 

Rather than share a tent, they each slept in their own bivvy (short for bivouac sack): a waterproof sack surrounding each sleeping bag with a bug net at the top. Depending upon the weather, they either slept under a tarp or under the stars.

One other thing that they had to take into consideration was bears and their uncanny ability to get into food containers. Brett carried all of their food in a special bear canister (seen here next to Veronica), which they restocked every three days. Not only did they never see a bear, they never saw any proof of bears.

Rather than attempting to retell Veronica’s stories, I’ll let you read them for yourself on her blog.

Instead, I’ll just show you some of the amazing images that they captured during their big adventures.

It is notoriously difficult to book a camping spot in Yosemite, but they lucked out and secured a spot in Yosemite Valley, where they car camped for three nights with Siena, who had driven up from San Diego. 

 

From Napa to Martinez...

We all thoroughly enjoyed our visit to The Hess Collection, but after seeing the high price of their wine tastings, we left without even trying any of their wines.

The scenery was lovely on the way to our next stop, which was the Rutherford Grill for an early dinner of “modern American comfort food.”

When I realized that we would be passing through Martinez on our drive home, I contacted Darlene to see if she would be home so we could stop by. As you can see, she and Mike were home, so we dropped in for a quick visit.

Luckily I would get to spend more time with her when she stayed with us for two nights in September on her way home from Italy.

The Hess Collection...

Another day Dad drove us to Napa to visit The Hess Collection, a free contemporary art museum at Hess Winery. Donald Hess, a Swiss entrepreneur and wine producer at six wineries on four continents, limits himself to collecting works by living artists whom he supports long term. This was my favorite piece, Hommage by Leopaldo Maler from Argentina. This old Underwood typewriter emitting flames in the place of words is the same style as used by his uncle who was assassinated for the honesty of his political essays.

Behind Ashlynn you might be able to barely see that there is a work of art. Using no adhesives or hardware, the 10-by-16 foot screen titled Surface Tension by British environmental sculptor Andy Goldsworthy is a network of chestnut leaf stalks held together with hawthorn thorns. Rock Pools might look like giant cow patties, but is actually stones melted in a kiln.

Dad and Ann were especially drawn to this mixed media painting combining oil paint, clay, sand, straw and lead by German artist Anselm Kiefer.

A Lunar Eclipse in a Forest by Japanese sculptor Katsura Funakoshi was particularly creepy.

This was one of five sculptures as part of the Ugazi group by South African Deryck Healey.

While Ashlynn has said many times that she doesn’t like going to art museums, she was definitely mesmerized by several of the works in this fascinating gallery.

We were surprised to learn that this was not actually a photograph, but rather a photo-realistic painting called Johanna II by Swiss artist Franz Gertsch.