Let it go

Fire on the beach

John's photo: Jumpkelping

     I returned from Evanston on a Wednesday.  On Thursday I shopped and did laundry.  On Friday I cooked.  On Saturday we drove to Manzanita.  Judy dropped me off at the library cottage, where I cleaned for the next four hours.  Then we joined John and Rose at the small house we rent together, and spring vacation began.

Rob's photo: Judy and Gracie

     Chas and Kris had the house next door, along with their daughter Jenny and her family.  Jess and her family and friends were staying at house a few blocks away.  Our first vacation plan  was to meet Jess and Rob's new puppy, a springer spaniel named Gracie.  Our second was to walk to the bakery every morning before they sold out of cinnamon rolls.  We didn't have a third.

Josh chooses a tune

     The kids played jump rope with bull kelp, Jamie singing the jump rope songs at the top of her lungs.  Our house had a player piano, and Josh tried out Great Balls of Fire in between card games.

Rob and Gracie

    The weather was superb, but often windy.  Rose remembered the good time that Tina had organized last summer, gathering everyone on the beach for a fire to make s'mores. Each evening this spring break seemed too windy for a beach fire.  Finally, on our last night, John lit a fire at dusk.  Rose and I positioned chairs around, got the marshmallows and Hershey bars ready, and waited in the dark for the kids to appear.  The moon was almost full.  We heard the girls before we saw them.  They ran up the beach from the tall sand dune about four blocks away singing  Let it Go, a song from  the movie Frozen, 
     In Frozen, the young queen has to hide and rigidly control her powers,  to the extent that she goes into exile to protect people from them.  She finally lets herself loose, singing, "Let it go!  Let it go!"
     My friend  Linda told me about a woman she knows.  The woman hesitates to speak, and follows everything she says with a question or a glance for reassurance. There are still pressures on young girls to stifle their power.  Hearing my nieces running on the beach at night, singing strong, makes me happy and confident that they will prevail over the influences that would mute them.

John's photo: Let it go

 

Time with the guys

    Au contraire, my son and brother, the Kalil boys were anything but wild.  We went right from the airport to the first of many restaurant meals.  They are patient and polite with the waiters,  and show decent table manners when eating.  They didn't interrupt or talk over each other to vie for my attention.  I got to trade riddles and silly jokes with Charlie, and then hear tales of the characters at Sam's preschool.  I could hear the debate over Jack's opinions about the best dishes at each of the restaurants we drove past.  I could follow the plot of the new Muppets movie,  and just  bask in the happiness of hanging out with my fine, sturdy grandsons.

Charlie finds life funny

Sam shoots hoops

   Jack is busy programming computer games throughout the Scratch  website from MIT.  He guided me through signing up so I can follow his games as he creates them. He had to hurry with the programming, because the boys are only allowed screen time on the weekends.  He and Charlie are taking piano lessons, and have very different styles.  Jack is into the four-handed Heart and Soul, while Charlie is fascinated that the piece his teacher wants him to play (Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring) is almost three hundred years old.

Jack creates a game

   




 Sam likes to build and to do crafts.  I studied the basic triangle forms of the magnetic rods and balls, so that I could build with him. I faked it OK.   But when it came to crafts, I was flummoxed by the last piece of the extremely simple bracelet kit I had brought.  So three dimensional, and of course the directions are in pictures.  Sam figured it out.

Sam builds

Duet

   In every spare moment, the boys go outside to play basketball or catch.   There are friends to  ride bicycles with at the park on the next block. Jack and Charlie each join a friend on weekday mornings for the three- block walk  to their elementary school.
    I felt lucky that Sam is still young enough to be walked to his  preschool.  After we dropped Sam off, Paul took me on a walking tour of Evanston.  We strolled along Lake Michigan, and ended up at a farm to-table restaurant. "I think they come from Portland," ventured Paul.   The next day was blustery, so we had a driving tour of the town, complete with Paul's commentary.  He'd thought carefully about sites that would be of interest to me.  He almost always sees people he knows.  It was fun to meet the friends from the different civic and musical parts of his life.
    On this trip, I got to have blocks of  one-to-one time with each boy, and with Paul.  I left for home with my heart full and satisfied.

Walking Sam to school

Texas flowers

   The bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush were in bloom along the roadside when David picked me up from the airport in College Station.  It looked like a purple and orange carpet, billowing  in the ever-present Texas wind. I was eager to see Maxine and Simone.

Simone leading me to the pool

    Maxine came bounding out of her kindergarten class, a schoolgirl in her  navy and khaki uniform uniform and her bight pink princess backpack.  "Grandma!" she cried. Simone  was running around  in the outdoor area of her preschool, on the same school grounds.  She shied away, not knowing me.  The hesitation faded fast as Simone's cheerful busyness took over.

Simone names her world

    Maxine takes pride in her grasp of the structure of her week:  dance on Tuesdays, swimming on Wednesdays, gymnastics on Thursdays, movie night at home on Fridays. By the time we got Maxine to her swimming lesson that afternoon,  Simone and I were fast friends.  She let me accompany her round and round the pool, veering toward and away from the water's edge while I walked in a crouch at what for me is top speed.  During the car ride home, Simone hummed one tuneless  tune after another and then said, "All done."  Maxine sang Frere Jacques, and Simone pitched in.  
    Maxine keeps busy with arts and crafts.  She made bracelets for me and Judy and the boy next door on her rubber band loom.   Simone is at the delightful stage of naming her world ;  Shoe!  Fit! Clean up!

Maxine makes bracelets

     Movie night featured Frozen.  David had invited friends in for Indian food.  After dinner we sat in rows in front of the TV with popcorn on our laps while Maxine guided us through the movie.  At the end,  Maxine said, "Now's the time to dance!"  We all danced wildly through the credits.  Maxine, tall and thin, leaped around the room with her graceful ballet moves ( she even tries to do the hula hoop en pointe.)  Simone, sturdy and solid, did the twist in place.

Go Fish

    My brother Don and his wife Mary drove up from the Woodlands on Saturday.  They chased Maxine up and down the steep banks of the creek in the backyard, while Simone ran around "Outside!  Outside!"

Man cave

Maxine beat Mary at cards, and we all played Hide and Seek.  David and Don found the perfect hiding place in the storage closet.  They laughed about my upcoming trip to see the grandsons in Evanston:  "This is just the warm up ; that will be the real game."  And, "Tina's away for the weekend? It will be like Lord of the Flies.  You'll get there  to find Paul tied up."
   Late Saturday night Courtney arrived home from the castle in Bavaria where she had given a talk and learned a new German card game.  David and I drove through  the quiet Texas night to Austin.  I stayed in his apartment before getting on the plane to Chicago at dawn.
 

Old friends in a new place

Kris and Maggie 1966

    When we were teenagers, my sister Rose and I were friends with Kris, John, and John's brother Chas.  Soon Kris married Chas and Rose married John.  A few years later, they all moved across the country to Sequim.  They made their lives on the Olympic Peninsula.  I visited whenever I could.
     Flash forward almost fifty years.  This winter Rose finally persuaded Chas and Kris to vacation for the first time in  Manzanita. Judy and I went, too. We played Petanque (a French form of bocce) on the beach.  The Euchre games started after breakfast and continued into the night.  Judy and I kept watch on the ocean while the others took long bike rides.  Rose and I  walked into town to shop and to support the local bakery.   Kris found the perfect skirt for her daughter-in-law, I found a good toy for Maxine's birthday.  We  looked at the sunsets and the stars, and we ate.
   
   

Maggie, Chas, Kris, Rose, John 2014

Petanque on the beach

      Chas had carved  Judy and me a puzzle for our wedding, and at Manzanita we all put it put together.   The puzzle is made from  John's photo of Judy and me at Manzanita last summer. We are standing beaming amid the tide pools full of starfish. ( I told the story in the  August 22, 2014  post, Chariots of Fire.)  Chas's puzzle has only 110  pieces, but it is not easy to complete.  When he explained his techniques for creating different patterns of cuts, I was grateful that he used his easiest pattern for us.  My favorite part of the puzzle is the way the two heart-shaped pieces are interchangeable.

Two Hearts as One