The Magic Behind Labor Day Weekend

Chris knows about all the cool hikes (he did a write up about some of his favorite Bay Area hikes here!), and exploring new territory with him and Jack is my favorite way to spend the weekends together. This weekend we hiked The Purisima Trail, which I loved because even though it’s about twenty minutes from our house, I feel like I’m in the middle of some ancient forest. The best part was when Jack spent a few minutes talking to a crow. He would chirp out, and the crow would call back, and our hearts exploded.

Every Spring we say that this will be THE summer: weekly picnics, international travel, pool parties, and demolition derbies. But August ends, and no it wasn’t; it never is. The air starts to get crisp around the edges, the light gets long, and we’ve only gone to the farmer’s market twice. But the first weekend in September is a blessed long weekend dedicated to banishing a few of the summer ghosts that haunt you. Squeeze in one last trip to the lake, or see an outdoor movie, or – for the Perry family – hike through a redwood forest.

And after a few hours in the forest we drove home and put Jack to bed. The sun set with it all our beautiful summer intentions, and it was okay that summer is over. We can pull out our sweaters. Fires will warm our living room. The leaves will turn gold and fall from the trees with the autumnal gravity of things left unsaid.

b perry

p.s. if you want to follow along with our weekend hikes, Chris and I usually post them on Instagram under #perrysinthewild. It is a hashtag that I one hundred percent stole from a girl in my college ward, but you know, “great hashtaggers steal” or something.

One Perfect Day in Yosemite (with kids)

We went to Yosemite this month with my BFF Whitney and her family. What was conceived as an entire week camping with friends eventually became just a day trip for us, but that narrative is part of a much larger theme for 2015, which is, “make travel plans, and then cancel them a few months later.” I’m glad we didn’t cancel this trip because it was a day I’ll remember forever and (I hope) the beginning of a freaking sweet family tradition.

The itinerary was pretty light, but it was great for three kids under four.
4:00 a.m. Leave home
7:30 Arrive, eat breakfast donuts, explore Yosemite Village
9:00 Walk to Lower Yosemite Falls
11:30 Eat lunch at Ahwahee Hotel
1:00 Hike to Mirror Lake and play in the water
3:30 Drive to Tunnel View
4:30 Set up campsite, roast s'mores, take pictures
6:00 Drive home
(The Royals camped there for a couple more days)

On the way home, I held this polaroid in my hands and thought about how perfect the little picture was. I love the way Jack stares at these little Royal faces, their matching t shirts, how we can see Chris standing to the side, the trees, the mountains. I felt stupid for setting up the shot in such terrible lighting, but after a while I reminded myself what I love the most about polaroids: this picture is the only one like it in the world, and it’s mine.

I feel the same way about our itinerary. Sure, we could have made some logistical changes I guess, but at the end of the day, this whirlwind adventure was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us. That was the only day like that we’ll ever have, and that’s what made it so perfect.

b perry

Weekends in SF

They say you should be a tourist in your hometown, and if you live in Battle Mountain, Nevada, the worst city in America, then you’re out of luck. Literally any other city is fair game. Luckily it's easy to be tourists here since San Francisco is an actual travel destination. For us this means taking little day trips to explore new places together.

Historically, Chris and I have not spent much time in San Francisco because with the traffic, the parking, the being-around-other-people, it doesn’t feature prominently at the top of our list. But one July day, we walked into our muggy house and Chris said, “That’s it, we’re going to the coldest place in the Bay.” We got into the car and drove straight to Twin Peaks. It was cool and blustery, and Jack was entertained for the entire afternoon. That was the beginning of a family tradition that has revolutionized our weekends.

Twin Peaks
We had never actually walked up these peaks before. We've driven there a dozen times but never left the lookout point. The hike was quick, easy, and most importantly, cold.

Fort Funston

Parent, Host, and Guidebook

My brother and his wife came to visit us for their Spring break again, and while they were The Best Guests, it can be complicated to host people when you have a baby. I am not The Best at it. For their visit last year my role leaned more towards personal tour guide. This year I was more like the well-meaning travel guidebook with a few outdated maps, some fun ideas to explore on your own, and an exciting new feature where I obsessively text to ask if you’re having a good, safe, non-freezing time.

Perry-free excursions included:
A photo scavenger hunt in SF
Pie in Pescadero
The gardens at Filoli
A Giants/Rockies baseball game
Brunch at Mama’s
Tour of Wunderlich

Perry/Horman excursions included:
Sushi Saturday
The Interceptor from Pirates
Lunch at Google
Breakfast at Buck’s
Hiking Crystal Springs
Hiking in Woodside
Bob’s run for fresh donuts

Stanford Theatre

This weekend we went to see the Sound of Music at the Stanford Theatre. We haven’t had a traditional “date night” in a while, (words that have never been used to describe this pregnancy: predictable, adventuresome, outdoorsy) and this was a great plan for our night because it was 1) air conditioned and sitting down 2) a movie we love and 3) at a fun new place together.

Some of my all-time favorite nights out have been at silent film festivals or watching classic movies on the big screen. Everywhere else I’ve lived you had to be proactive about attending events like these, but we are lucky to live in an area with many theatres that specialize in showing silent films and classic Hollywood movies every day of the week. The Stanford Theatre uses real film for the movies it shows, and they have professional organists who accompany the silent films and perform before the show and during intermission. Plus we got a giant bucket of popcorn for $2.50. I can’t wait to go back.

britt

Date Details
Stanford Theatre 
221 University Avenue, Palo Alto
Tickets are $7

p.s. Another one of my favorite theatres in the Bay Area for silent films, classic movies, and even current box office hits.
p.p.s  And my favorite McSweeney's essay on this subject.

Hippie Tree

My parents and sister came to visit a few weeks ago when my mom had a last-minute education policymaker’s conference in Tiburon. I didn’t think I would get to see them while I was pregnant, so it was a really nice surprise. I wish I could say I was the best host ever, but that would be an enormous lie. I can, however, truthfully say that family took really good care of me while they were here even though I did absolutely nothing to deserve it.

We went on two minor excursions while they were here: one old-time favorite (Ike's and the Pulgas Water Temple), and one new adventure. Our new excursion together was in Tiburon, where my mom’s conference was. Tiburon is pretty charming. It’s right on the water, and it has a really old-timey, small town (admittedly, an incredibly wealthy small town) feel to it. Like, as you’re walking down Main Street you can smell the buttered popcorn for the matinee at the teeny movie theatre and the waffle cones being made at the ice cream parlor. Darling. We had lunch out on the bay at Sam’s Anchor Café, and then drove up into the hills.

The quickest path to the Hippie Tree is a fire road right across from 100 Gilmartin Drive, and it’s a five-minute walk from the street. There is an incredible view of both downtown SF and the Golden Gate Bridge. I can’t decide if it’s my favorite view of San Francisco, but it’s completely unique compared to any of the overlooks of the city that I have been to so far. We had the place to ourselves most of the time. It was beautiful and peaceful, and it’s a memory with my family that I’ll always love. My dad found a geocache, we took some pictures, AND when my parents helped me I eventually lifted my pregnant body up into the swing, which was fun. 

britt

p.s. A BIG thank you to Lauren for tipping me off to this place a few weeks ago. I'd never even heard of this place before.

California State Capitol

Sacramento was one of those places we wanted to visit but never did. There were a few days of, “Oh it would be so fun to take Amtrack out there for a quick weekend trip! [Insert a year of never speaking about it again]” So at 9:00 p.m. on Friday night, when Chris’ sister emailed us to say she would be racing in the Amgen Tour of California, we decided to have an unexpected weekend adventure together – and it was awesome.

Chris is a good brother. :) And this is Anne right before the race. She is amazing.

The race was really exciting. The circuit was about a mile long, so they were passing by us every two or three minutes. Chris has a video on instagram of the sprint finish (that you should watch without volume). That weekend we spent most of our time visiting with Chris’ sister and their cousins, but we did make time for a little exploring around our hotel in downtown Sacramento. We visited a beautiful Catholic church, walked through Old Town, enjoyed vegetarian burritos, and I tried my first cronut knockoff.

The BEST thing we did that weekend was walk through the California State Capitol. What a gorgeous building. I could not get enough of the amazing rotunda, the wood work, the senate, the old-timey elevators, the opportunity to take a picture next to a portrait of California Governor Ronald Reagan?!

I’m telling you, even if government buildings aren’t your thing, it’s all worth the visit.

britt

p.s. I hear their museum at the capitol is a fun place to learn about California state history, but my pregnant body is getting big enough that I’m almost ready to apply for statehood myself. So after a lot of walking, it was time for me to head back to the hotel.

Pie in Pescadero

Chris has wanted to take me to Duarte’s Tavern in Pescadero since we started dating. It’s about an hour away from where we live, but the pies are legendary throughout the land. One time, we actually drove all the way there, parked in front of the tavern, and the specifics are hazy (we think it might have been closed for a Monday holiday?) but I do remember whimpering a few asterisk-laden words and eventually we drove all the way to Santa Cruz, where I ended up crying over a chocolate ice cream cone at Marianne’s. Lots of good decisions that day.

But with Steve and Hannah in town, Chris took the day off work and we planned a day trip down the coast. We kicked off the morning by walking along Half Moon Bay State Beach, and then we took to Highway 1. Along the way, we pulled over whenever a beach looked too beautiful to pass by. We also stopped at an old favorite "Pebble Beach" that isn't on Google Maps, just Chris' trusty, actual physical map. We enjoyed an asterisked-word-free morning walking together, our pockets full of shells and shark teeth.

We ate lunch at Duarte’s, and it was everything they say it is. We shared fluffy pancakes with a berry syrup, an amazing crab melt, roasted potatoes, steamed artichoke, some artichoke soup, and then we each got a slice of pie. Even my brother who hates rhubarb (“Why would you put celery in a strawberry pie?”) loved their strawberry rhubarb pie. It’s been weeks, and I’m still trying to figure out how I can justify two hours of driving for another slice.

britt

All Glory, Loud, and Horror

I have heard Jim Welch play the organ about a half dozen times, most recently for Convocation at Stanford Memorial Church, but I was embarrassingly excited for his Annual Halloween Concert. I thought about it multiple times a day. I told nearly everyone I know about my Halloween plans. And that excitement has in fact bled over into November; I have listed to Toccata and Fugue in D Minor six times already this morning.

I don’t think an organ concert would excite me so much if it weren’t for my mom. She is an insanely talented organist, and I love to hear her play. We had an organ in our house, and sometimes I would hide behind the couch so I could listen to her practice. She played hymns and scales, and I sat mesmerized by her feet moving over the pedals. I loved making the special drive to her lessons in Rexburg, which is also where we went to the occasional organ concert or silent movie.

So yes. When I found out that every Halloween for 21 years an organ-playing dude goes to a little Episcopalian chapel in Palo Alto and plays in dramatic, minor keys (sometimes dressed as a vampire) – I got pretty excited. Happy Halloween indeed.

britt

Apples & Autumn Rituals

In my first year of law school, my property professor held a review session on a reading day, and she brought us snacks as a peace offering for that extra morning of class. That was the first time I had Gravenstein apple juice from Berkeley Bowl. Since then, I’ve made a special trip over to the East Bay each year to pick up a gallon or two of autumn-in-a-jug.

Pumpkins seem to be the internet darling when it comes to autumn treats, but my favorite has always been apples. Every November that I can remember, my dad drove to Payson, Utah to buy an entire trailer-full of apples to take back to Idaho. That drive home – with hundreds of apples in tow – is a cherished family ritual, a ceremony of fall. It signals the transition from the harvest of summer’s bounty to the preparations for winter’s holiday season.

I think that’s why I make the effort to get to Berkeley Bowl every year: it is a way for me to continue the tradition even though I am away from my family. This year, we shared our Gravenstein apple juice over a weekend dinner with friends, and we made caramel cider syrup for our Sunday brunch. Today, I drink it in the perfect stillness of a golden October morning, and reflect on autumns past.

britt

p.s. blah blah, I’m always so serious now. Whatever. Go to Berkeley Bowl - it is food paradise. And buy this juice. Tell me all about it.

Waking up in Big Sur

I love camping together, and I've been wanting to go on a BFF Camping Trip for months. Then Mackenzie, being awesome, invited us to spend the weekend at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. We all met at our campsite on Friday and spent the night roasting marshmallows and joking around. In semi-related news: we did not kill any wildlife at any point on our journey, though a deer with reckless disregard for her own wildlife did her best to hit our truck on Highway 1.

Saturday morning we woke up in a redwood forest, a light rain falling through the trees, and I thought about a passage I read last month in The Blue Castle:

The woods, when they give at all, give unstintedly and hold nothing back from their true worshipers. We must go to them lovingly, humbly, patiently, watchfully, and we shall learn what poignant loveliness lurks in the wild places and silent intervals, lying under starshine and sunset, what cadences of unearthly music are harped on aged pine boughs or crooned in copses of fir, what delicate savors exhale from mosses and ferns in sunny corners or on damp brooklands, what dreams and myths and legends of an older time haunt them.

Then that immortal heart of the woods will beat against ours, and its subtle life will steal into our veins and make us its own forever, so that no matter where we go or how widely we wander we shall yet be drawn back to the forest to find our most enduring kinship.  

britt

p.s. All of these pictures (except the tunnel one is from my instagram) were taken by Matt and Adeline Lambert. I love them both, and I cannot stop looking at their shots. They posted more from the trip on their photography blog here.

Isaiah,

In the last few weeks I’ve done an enormous amount of reading. We’re talking, this is probably more reading than I’ve ever done in such a short period of time ever. But tax law can get pretty dry, and easily the most beautiful thing I’ve read this month was from Isaiah, in an inscription on the Pulgas Water Temple:

I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people.

britt

to weekend getaways,

Chris in Muir Woods

Adventure!

I’m considering buying this print for our apartment. They make one with a white background and black lines, but I prefer this version because I like the portrayal of travel as light. This summer we didn’t have any international flights, but we made quick weekend trips a priority, and they brightened my life. We drove along the coast, explored redwood forests, and slept under the stars. We swam in ocean water on sweltering afternoons, and huddled under fleece blankets watching movies in the mountains. Every day glimmered with that warmth that only comes from embarking into The Unknown with people you love. It wasn't anything flashy, but my summer memories are filled with light.

britt

Dear Jess,

Friday night we went to the Athletics/Yankee’s game in Oakland. It was one of the best baseball games I’ve ever been to, and the seventh inning stretch made me cry, as always. Additionally, I informed Mr. Jeter that you are awaiting his proposal. He’ll get back to you soon.

Wish you were here,

britt

Oh Deep Dish Pizza Gods of Justice,

This is me eyeing their pizza. Outraged. Also: it was 10:30 at night, and I was starving... I probably wouldn't have gone crazy under normal circumstances.

Friday night we went to Zachary’s, finally completing the Bay Area deep dish trifecta – Little Star and Patxi’s being the other two horses in the race. It’s too soon to tell who wins First Place, but there is one thing I know for sure: A group of people showed up 25 minutes after we did, and they got our pizza before we got ours. Some would call that unjust. I would call that incredibly unjust, and would further add that those guys are lucky I didn’t steal their pizza and smash it over their heads (in the name of justice).

britt

to Freedom:

Filoli is a 1917 county house (read: mansion) with pretty extensive gardens. A huge rose garden, orchards, meadows, forests, bowling greens, it's awesome. Chris' favorite part was the knot garden (i.e. the plants are all woven around each other). Grandma: we are going there, you will love it.

I'm pretty sure this was the first "free weekend" I've had since Billy was hero. Around 2:00 on Saturday afternoon, I started talking about how I wanted to go to Filoli sometime. Chris looked at his watch and said, "Oh, we could go now! Do you want to go now?!" And - if you can believe it - right that second, we got in the truck, and we went; and that's what I think freedom is. 

- happy (summer) camper